On this page
Two lines on a Top1031 sponsor record card describe a finished program, and they are not the same line. "Sold, result reported by the sponsor" counts a Trust the sponsor sold and printed a result for, in its own brochure, offering documents or press release. "Sold, result not reported by the sponsor" counts a Trust that was sold - the industry's full-cycle sale - with no sponsor-published number behind it. Read a DST sponsor full cycle outcome record without knowing which of the two is on screen and it is easy to overstate how documented that record is. Definitions for the underlying terms sit on the methodology page.
What a DST sponsor full cycle outcome record shows
Sponsor marketing often cites a track record spanning dozens of trusts. That count says how many programs existed, not what happened to any of them. Top1031 grades sponsors rather than individual Trusts for a related reason: a sponsor's record is made of separate Trusts that can finish in very different states, and one number can hide that spread.
So the gap between a sponsor's sold count and its reported count is itself information. It shows how much of a completed history is documented by the sponsor rather than simply closed. A wide gap does not mean the unreported Trusts performed poorly - it means no sponsor-published result has been recorded for them. Sponsors publish exit results selectively, and Top1031 does not attempt to infer why. What the method does do is count only the reported ones toward the letter: a sale known from a broker's site or a "sold" tag adds nothing either way.
What to gather before comparing the two measures
- A specific sponsor page on Top1031, read at the record-card level rather than the individual Trust level.
- The as-of date on that card. Both counts move as documents arrive, and a figure pulled early in 2026 can be stale by mid-year.
- The methodology page's definitions for a reported program and a loss program, so each line is read for what it includes.
- Roughly ten to fifteen minutes per sponsor when more than one record card is being read side by side.
- Somewhere to note sponsor-reported performance figures separately. Each carries the label "as reported by the sponsor" on Top1031, and that label belongs in any notes taken from it.
How to separate sold from reported
1. Open the sponsor's record card, not the Trust list
A Program is a Trust seen within a sponsor's track record, and both lines live at that level. An individual Trust page shows that Trust's status, not how it sits inside the broader record.
2. Read the sold lines first
Three lines on the card describe sales: sold with a sponsor-reported result, sold with a result reported by others or not published, and sold according to the sponsor but not yet verified. Together they say how many Trusts on the record are no longer active investments. Nothing more. A Trust can be sold with no sponsor-published outcome attached to it.
3. Isolate the reported subset
Only the first of those lines counts toward the letter. A reported program is one where the sponsor itself printed a total return, an equity multiple or an annualized return, in a document it published. It is always equal to or smaller than the total sold, never larger. A large sold number beside a small reported number marks a documentation gap, not a performance signal in either direction.
4. Check how any performance figure is labeled
A performance figure attached to a reported program carries "as reported by the sponsor" alongside a citation to the source. Top1031 reproduces such figures as published rather than averaging or annualizing them into a new number, and the method does not score how large the return was: a program that returned $1.30 per $1 invested and one that returned $2.10 count the same. A figure without that label and citation is unverified.
5. Look at the ratio, not just the counts
Reported divided by sold gives a rough sense of how much of a completed record the sponsor has documented. Twenty sold Trusts with four reported results is a very different documentation profile from twenty with eighteen, even where both sponsors describe themselves identically in their own materials. The method draws one hard line through that ratio: a sponsor with fewer than three reported programs cannot be graded above C, however many it sold.
6. Place the Sponsor Grade against both lines
A Sponsor Grade is sponsor-level - A, B, C, D, F, or NR - and is derived from two counts: reported programs and programs that lost investor capital. It is not a rating of any individual offering, not a forecast of what a current offering will do, and not a judgment about whether an offering suits any particular investor. Reading the Grade before the lines under it skips the step that explains what the Grade is built from.
Common misreadings of a sponsor's record
- Treating Historical as identical to sold. Historical status means a Trust is no longer raising. Sold is a more specific state within that: the property was disposed of. Many Historical Trusts are still operating.
- Reading a Sponsor Grade as a Trust-level score. The Grade is sponsor-level. One strong or weak Trust inside a record does not move it the way it would move a grade that applied to that Trust alone.
- Assuming every sold Trust has a sponsor-reported result. It does not. Reported is a documented subset, and its size varies widely by sponsor.
- Averaging sponsor-reported figures into a single performance number. Top1031 never does this, and doing it independently strips the "as reported by the sponsor" context that gives the original figure its meaning.
- Comparing records of very different sizes without checking the programs on record. Four out of five and four out of forty look identical to anyone who only registers the four.
Where these lines appear on Top1031
- Each sponsor's record card, where the sold and reported lines are printed with an as-of date, each count linking to its programs and each program to its document.
- The methodology page, which prints the rules that turn the counts into a letter.
- Sponsor-reported performance figures, which keep the "as reported by the sponsor" label and citation wherever they appear, tables and captions included.
Check a sponsor's record directly
Sold and reported counts sit on each sponsor's record card. Browse the Top1031 directory of DST offerings.
Reading the gap first
Once both counts are in hand for a sponsor, they only compare cleanly against another sponsor's counts from the same as-of period, since either number can shift within a single 2026 filing cycle. The gap between them is often a plainer first check than the size of the total track record: a long record with a thin reported subset says the sponsor's documentation is thin, before a single figure enters the picture. That is a statement about what the record contains - not about any Trust, sponsor, or structure as a choice.