Home-buying taxes - USA vs Europe

[Viktor Branson]

Hello,

My name is Viktor and I'm currently living in Brussels, Belgium. I'm looking at purchasing my first single family property and have been following the BP podcast for a couple of weeks (more like binge-listening)

I'm trying to apply the different strategies I've learnt about but I sometimes have trouble to relate - Regulations and taxes are quite different in Belgium than they are in the USA (it seems).

I'd like to know more about the home-buying taxes you face when buying/selling a property in the US. This would help me having context when reading the different formulas exposed on BP (like ARV x 0.7 - repair costs)

Buying

In Belgium, buying a property means paying:

- Real estate registration fee - 12.5% of the buying price (or 6% for very "small" real estate)

- Mortgage registration fee - 4% of the borrowed amount

+ notary fees

Selling

The return you get from selling a property is taxed at 16.5% if you owned the real estate for more than 5 years. 33% otherwise.

Do you have this kind of taxes in the US?

Apply the 70% rules seems quite difficult in Belgium as you already have more than 10% in registration fees from the get-go.

Thanks for your time,

Viktor