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Selling a house can yield some unexpected tax benefits. Few of us buy or sell often enough to stay abreast of the latest turns of the tax screw, so here’s an update on a few policies that could ease the pain:
Category: Money Matters Monday
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- Tax Tips for Home Sellers
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- 2 Professionals Who Can Save You Thousands
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“Satisfaction goes up when you have concrete expectations,” says CA-based contractor Dan Fritschen. The unglamorous truth is that planning ahead saves money. In order to plan effectively, Fritschen recommends that homeowners seek assistance from two types of renovation consultants. Early in your project, each of these pros will ask different, equally important questions to help you translate a design vision into a built reality.
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- Cost and Competition: Remodeling Heats Up
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If you are thinking that this is the year to tackle a bigger renovation project that you’ve been postponing, you’re not the only one. After several years of maintenance mode, homeowners are going to spend on actual improvements this year, predicts the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.
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- What Your Contractor Won’t Tell You
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Licenses, bonding, and insurance: Every contractor is required by law to have these essential documents in order, but not all do. And the harsh reality is that, if your contractor flouts the law, it could end up costing you.
Adamina Fies, president of Synergy Design & Construction in Reston, VA, says that, as absurd as it may seem, homeowners need to triple-check that their contractors and subcontractors are complying with state and local laws. If your contractor doesn’t have the proper paperwork, then you, the client, could be pulled into lawsuits ranging from on-the-job injuries to unpaid subcontractors’ bills.
Here’s the checklist Fies uses when vetting contractors:
- Buying & Selling Homes >
- Is Housing Really Back?
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Hyperventilation over the housing market recovery is reaching gale force. National news outlets are quoting some experts as saying that housing will lead economic growth this year.
Pass the paper bags. The truth is that a consistent rise in home values in 2012—of 5.9% according to Zillow, and 5.5% according to the Case-Shiller Index—falls far short of recapturing a 30% drop in values since 2006.
This year, several factors will keep home values in check:
- Buying & Selling Homes >
- 5 Market Trends to Cash In On This Year
The unexpected has become the norm for the US real estate market. As evidenced by the annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, recently released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), market trends are shifting both quickly and often. Whatever was happening in your local market last spring isn’t likely to be happening now.
Here’s a rundown of the top trends outlined in the NAR report and how you can make the most of them:
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- Buying & Selling Homes >
- A Little Income Adds a Lot of Value
If you’ve inherited or converted even a small slice of space to a standalone living unit that could be rented, you’ve substantially boosted the value of the whole property.
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- Buying & Selling Homes >
- Will 2013 Values Support Improvements?
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2013 is likely to see home values stabilizing—but not because of sale prices. A strengthening labor market is the rising tide that will lift property values, says Abbe Will, research analyst with the Harvard Joint Center on Housing.
- Buying & Selling Homes >
- 3 Top Ways to Capture Value in 2013
While analysts argue whether 2012 was in fact the turnaround year for home sales, it’s clear that home remodeling is gaining traction.
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The Harvard Joint Center on Housing’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity projects steadily rising home maintenance and improvement spending in 2013. Here’s how to concentrate your money and effort on the projects most likely to deliver a quick return:
- Buying & Selling Homes >
- Two Regulatory Trends That Could Trim Your Cash Flow
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That sacred cow, the home mortgage deduction, is likely headed for the slaughterhouse. As Congress explores ways to raise revenue, analysts agree that the deduction is likely to be trimmed.
If so, property values could erode as much as 15%, warns the National Association of Realtors (though others believe the effect could be muted).
Get ahead before a reduced deduction becomes a reality by refinancing now, especially if you want to extract equity to finance improvements. Appraisers will have to take into consideration the ripple effect of any change in the deduction on home values, and that could undermine your future ability to get the financing package you need.