Notice: Most people searching for “gas station for sale” are looking for listings. As a private family office, we’re fundamentally different from brokerages. Our inventory is off-market and exclusive to our accredited investor base, and you can only access that inventory by scheduling a call with a member of our team to make sure that our interests and priorities align. While we have inventory, it’s thoroughly gated to accredited investors only.
In Q4 of every year, commercial real estate sales explode. Across the industry in 2025, US CRE transaction volume by quarter showed that Q4 made up 35% of total annual volume:
We’ve long known that Q4 is the busiest time of the year for our private family office. Upon analyzing our own data, however, we realized we’re even busier than the industry’s average:
Custom’s Q4 sales make up 40% of our total annual sales.
But the question is “Why?”
Why are investors waiting until Q4 to dive headfirst into commercial real estate? The answer is simple: Tax benefits, and gas stations are the #1 asset class for tax benefits.
First, Why Investors Love Commercial Real Estate: Depreciation
Standard commercial real estate qualifies for a 39-year depreciation schedule. By using something called accelerated depreciation, you’re able to frontload that benefit. That means that you’re applying the depreciation in the first few years of an asset’s life instead of dividing the entire benefit by 39 years. For example, let’s say you buy a $1M medical building and identify that 35% of the total value of that building can be depreciated. In the case of “straight line depreciation,” you’d have $350,000 worth of depreciation and it would be spread across 39 years for a grand total of $8,974 a year. For a high net worth investor, that’s simply not enough to move the needle.
Now, with 100% bonus depreciation, investors can take the full $350,000 in the first year.
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For gas station commercial real estate, however, there’s a tax rule that makes gas stations even more attractive than any other asset class…
The Little-Known Tax Rule That Makes Gas Stations the Most Cost-Effective Tax Depreciation Vehicle
Typically, through cost segregation, investors can identify up to 35% of a building’s total value as first-year depreciation (just like we mentioned in the example above).
Through a little-known rule in the tax code called Rev. Rul. 97-29 (technically IRC §168(e)(3)(E)(iii)):, there’s an exception that allows gas stations with attached C-stores to be depreciated on a 15-year basis instead of a 39-year basis:
- ✓50% or more of gross revenue from petroleum sales,
- ✓50% or more of floor space devoted to petroleum marketing,
- ✓or a building of 1,400 square feet or less.
If your head is swimming with all this complicated tax jargon, the gist of it is this: while the typical first-year depreciation you might get on a normal CRE asset is 35%, qualifying gas stations can be up to 85%.
Now, this comes with a lot of caveats: We are not accountants or financial advisers. All of this is general education and the numbers come from our personal experience with our investors’ cost segregation averages as well as industry averages. If you’re married or single, the numbers might change. If the scope of your cost segregation study is limited for any reason, the numbers might change. If your land appraisal is really high, the numbers might change. However, ALL of our properties qualify as retail motor fuel outlets. If you want to take a look, book a call here.
Example $4M Gas Station for Sale
On a qualifying retail motor fuel outlet, the structure along with everything else becomes eligible, which is why we see that 85% figure instead of 35%.
Here’s what a $4M gas station could look like when broken down by a cost segregation study, land appraisal, and more:
Illustrative scenario:
Land. $800,000. Never depreciable, no matter the asset class.
5-year personal property. Roughly $1M. Tanks, dispensers, pumps and signage generally fall under Asset Class 57.0.
15-year land improvements. Roughly $1M. Canopies, pump islands, paving and site lighting.
15-year building structure. Roughly $1.2M. This would normally be depreciated on a 39-year schedule, but instead it is not.
If you add all of those together, really all you’re taking away is the $800,000 in land. Our theoretical $4M gas station might have $3.2M worth of potential deductions.
Why This All Drives Q4 Commercial Real Estate Sales
The year-end rush for commercial real estate is driven by two things: 1) investors who need to secure more depreciation to offset their passive income and 2) institutions who need to deploy 100% of the capital that they’ve been allotted.
For us, since our primary investor base is made up of individual accredited investors, the former is more impactful.
Additionally, the property has to be placed in service before the end of the calendar year. That doesn’t mean the acquisition date (the date that the purchase contract was signed); it means the property has to close before the end of the year. Investors in Q4 are looking for gas stations in particular since they offer the best bang for their buck. They can buy a $4M gas station and get $3M of depreciation out of it.
What’s the Catch?
Why would the government offer such great tax benefits for gas stations? Clearly there must be a reason… Why would they give investors 30-60% more Y1 depreciation than with every other asset class?
First, it’s important to keep in mind that depreciation is not a permanent benefit. This is not a grant that gas station owners are being given. If you choose to sell the property instead of 1031’ing into another property, you’ll eventually be exposed to depreciation recapture. However, if you plan on 1031’ing indefinitely, you could potentially also never face depreciation recapture, since there will never be a taxable event.
Second, the government simply wants to incentivize gas station ownership, mostly due to the environmental concerns associated with underground storage tanks. This is also one of the most serious concerns of investors in this asset class: What happens when that tank starts to leak? The result can be a massive headache (one that our Managing Acquisition of Directors has faced a few times with his personal portfolio). It’s a risk, but it’s not a risk that can’t be managed as long as you fully understand what you’re getting into. If you’d like to take a closer look at any of our current inventory, click the button below. It’s also important to keep in mind that gas stations can be part of a strategy: You might not plan on holding the gas station for longer than a few years before 1031’ing into a medical asset. That way, your overall exposure to the environmental concern is limited.
Conclusion: Gas Stations for Sale
If you’re an investor looking for gas stations for sale, our private off-market inventory consists of plenty of them, and they all qualify as retail motor fuel outlets. Since we’re already under contract on these, it makes the process of buying as simple as possible on your end: We simply assign the contract to you. If that’s something you’re interested in, please reach out today.
