Realized 1031 Review 2026: FINRA Record, Fees, 1,513 Form Ds

Which Realized entity does what

The brand covers several companies. The documents separate them clearly, and the difference matters because each one sits under a different regulator.

Source: FINRA BrokerCheck firm report; IAPD firm record and Form ADV Part 1 and Part 2A (August 29, 2025); SEC EDGAR company record for CIK 0000832341; realized1031.com Terms and Conditions and Realized Exchange Services pages; SEC Form D filings of Realized Holdings, Inc., all read November 12, 2026.

Two points worth keeping. First, the adviser side is state-registered; a reader who expects an SEC-registered investment adviser, with SEC examination of an advisory business, will not find one. Second, the broker-dealer is a small firm: its audited net capital was $258,825 at March 31, 2026 against a requirement of $17,628, and its Form ADV lists 14 employees. Our Kay Properties review describes a different structure, a marketing brand that sells through an outside broker-dealer; here the broker-dealer, the adviser and the brand share one group.

How Realized is paid

Realized publishes more about its pay than most DST sellers. The sentences below are the firm's own, dated to the document that contains them.

The audited numbers show where the money comes from. For the year ended March 31, 2025, private placements were $7,886,917 of $7,968,099 in revenue, advisory services $66,719 and supervisory services $14,463; expenses were $3,772,049 and net income $3,344,398. The public version of the March 2026 report omits the income statement; it says the parent allocated $2,390,824 of costs, about 58% of the firm's expenses.

Worked example (our arithmetic)

Take a $1,000,000 exchange. At the firm's stated brokerage commission of “typically 5%,” $50,000 is paid once. If the DST's Form D shows the 6.5% median of the last 12 months, $65,000 of the offering goes to sales commissions across all the broker-dealers selling it; the Form D does not say how much of that reaches Realized. On the advisory route, 95 bps on a balance of $500,001 to $1,000,000 would be $9,500 a year if the schedule applies to the whole balance (our reading; the brochure does not say whether tiers are marginal) and, since the fee base starts in year two, $57,000 over a seven-year hold; at the CRS's 60 bps it is $6,000 a year and $36,000. The advisory route costs more than a 5% commission once the hold passes about six years at 95 bps, or about nine at 60 bps. Whether the sponsor's selling commission is also taken out of an advisory purchase is a question the documents leave open.

What 1,513 Form D filings say about what it sells

A Form D lists, in its sales-compensation section, each broker-dealer or registered person to be paid for selling the offering. We searched the SEC's Form D data sets (2014 to the first quarter of 2026) for CRD 22333, and EDGAR full-text search for the Form Ds filed from April 1 to November 12, 2026, under both the Thornhill Securities and the Realized Financial names. As a check, the same full-text search found 41 of the 42 filings the SEC data set holds for the first quarter of 2026, so the 2026 counts may miss a few. The earliest filing is June 27, 2017; the volume starts in the fourth quarter of 2019, after Realized Holdings took control.

Source: SEC Form D data sets through 2026Q1 and Form D filings on EDGAR through November 12, 2026; counts and medians are our arithmetic. Commission = Form D sales commissions divided by total offering amount; it covers every broker-dealer selling the offering, not Realized alone.

Three cautions on reading this table. The amounts are for the whole offering: stated offering amounts of the 319 sum to $23.4 billion and amounts sold to $20.4 billion, and none of that is Realized's volume. A filing that names the firm shows it was listed to be paid, not how much it sold. And the list is incomplete as a record of what the firm sells: BrokerCheck allegations name an Inspired Healthcare Capital DST and a Skyloft DST, yet none of the 319 offerings carries those names (see our pages on Inspired Healthcare Capital's DSTs and Skyloft Austin).

Source: the same Form D extract; sponsor groups combine issuer names with the sponsor named on the Form D, so they are our classification. The CSV lists all 27 groups and the 47 offerings of the last 12 months with their commissions.

The spread is the finding. DSTs from Cantor Fitzgerald, ExchangeRight, AEI and Hines show a median commission of about 5%; those from NexPoint, the CX series and Livingston Street Capital show 8.75% to 9.3%. Realized's own Reg BI document says “Commissions, due diligence, and marketing fees vary by sponsor, so we have an incentive to favor sponsors that pay more,” and that it addresses this through product approval and a levelized pay plan. The Form D cannot show what share of a 9% commission reaches the firm, which is the question to put to a representative in writing. Sponsor-level detail is in our censuses of Inland Private Capital, Cantor Fitzgerald, ExchangeRight, NexPoint, Hines, Blue Owl and Passco; the method for reading the load is in our DST fee analysis.

The last 12 months

From November 12, 2025 to November 12, 2026, 47 offerings (45 of them DSTs) had a Form D or amendment naming the firm. Their stated offering amounts total $5.09 billion and sales commissions $293.8 million, a dollar-weighted 5.8% (our arithmetic); the median is 6.5%, only 5 of the 47 sit at exactly 5.0%, and 20 are at 7% or more. Examples from the filings: Blue Owl Real Estate Exchange VI DST ($342,909,896 offered, $302,753,649 sold to 256 investors, $20,574,594 of sales commissions, amendment of November 12, 2026) and HREX 9, DST ($590,648,975 offered and sold to 550 investors, $30,919,868 of commissions, October 15, 2026). The minimum investment on these 44 offerings that state one has a median of $100,000, and 9 are at $250,000, against the firm's statement that sponsor minimums are “commonly between $25,000 and $100,000.”

The firm's claims, set against its filings

Each statement below is the company's own, read on the date shown. We say what the documents confirm, what they contradict and what we could not check.

On fees, the firm's best piece of disclosure is also the clearest admission of the conflict. Its October 18, 2026 blog post says “DST 1031 brokers are generally paid through selling commissions and related offering compensation built into the Delaware Statutory Trust offering,” that a higher commission “may encourage a broker to favor one DST over another,” and tells investors to ask for a breakdown of every up-front and ongoing fee. That advice applies to Realized too.

Complaints, arbitrations and regulatory record

Source: FINRA BrokerCheck reports and search read November 12, 2026; Form ADV Part 1 (August 29, 2025); the firm's annual audited reports filed with the SEC. A pending arbitration is an allegation, and BrokerCheck itself warns that matters may be contested, unresolved or unproven.

Why do the firm page and the audit disagree? BrokerCheck's firm summary shows no firm event, while the audit counts eleven pending arbitrations. The eight pending disputes on BrokerCheck sit on individual representatives' records; in some of them the claims describe the person as a control person or supervisor. A reader who checks only the firm's page sees none of it. The two counts also have different dates and units: the audit is at March 31, 2026; BrokerCheck includes matters through August 1, 2026, and one arbitration can name several people. The allegations named in BrokerCheck concern suitability, due diligence, and supervision, and two name specific DSTs: a Skyloft DST (see Skyloft Austin) and an Inspired Healthcare Capital DST (see what happened to its DSTs). We do not know the merits of any of them. One BrokerCheck statement says the firm and its representatives deny the allegations and intend to defend; the audit says the firm intends to defend the proceedings.

What a reader can do with this

You have 45 days from the sale of your property to identify replacement property and 180 days to close (the rules), and the choice of who sells you the DST is made inside that window. The documents above point to a short list of things to settle before you sign.

• Pick the account type on cost, not on the first call. Ask the representative, in writing, whether the recommendation is a brokerage purchase (commission, typically 5% per the firm) or an advisory account (60 to 100 bps a year per the firm's two documents), and which of those figures applies to you. Ask whether the sponsor's selling commission is still taken out of an advisory purchase.
• Ask what the sponsor pays the firm. The Reg BI disclosure says most sponsors pay due diligence and marketing fees that reduce the amount invested in the property. Ask for the amount on the DST you are shown, and ask the same of any other firm you compare.
• Read the offering's Form D, not just the pitch. Search the DST's name on EDGAR and read the sales-compensation and sales-commission lines. A DST at 9% commission is a different purchase from one at 5%; the memorandum's use-of-proceeds table shows the rest of the load, as our DST fee analysis explains.
• Check the person, not the brand. Look up your representative on BrokerCheck under CRD 22333 and read any disclosure in full. Ask whether any pending arbitration concerns the sponsor you are being shown.
• Compare the menu. The firm says it sells only products from sponsors it has selling agreements with. Compare with other sellers in our 1031 exchange companies comparison, our Kay Properties review and the DST market overview.

FAQ

All figures are from FINRA BrokerCheck (firm report for Realized Financial, Inc., CRD 22333, and the search and reports of its 16 registered individuals, read November 12, 2026); SEC IAPD and Form ADV Part 1 and Part 2A (filed August 29, 2025); Realized Financial's Form CRS and Regulation Best Interest disclosure (both September 1, 2026) and Form ADV brochure as posted on its site (June 30, 2025); its SEC Form X-17A-5 annual reports for the years ended March 31, 2024, 2025 and 2026; the SEC's quarterly Form D data sets through 2026Q1 and 118 Form D filings on EDGAR from April 1 to November 12, 2026; the Form Ds of Realized Holdings, Inc.; and realized1031.com pages read November 12, 2026. Counts, sums, medians and percentages are our arithmetic. Sponsor groups are our classification. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.