Turning personal residence into rental property...

[Tom Wallace]

Hi all. Want first to say how much I appreciate Bigger Pockets and the wonderful advice I have received here..

I own 3 rental properties at this point. My wife and I have lived in our personal residence for the past 15 years. I bought the house for $80000 and now it is worth about $170000. I have put probably $15000 into the house. I am the only one listed on the deed for the house.

As part of our plan to accumulate enough rental property to generate sufficient monthly cash flow to in order to retire (we also have other non real estate investments), we are planning on renting out our personal residence and moving into our next project property...This will allow us to keep the owner occupied financing that I have had in place on the house (I have checked my mortgage documents and I am in the clear to do this), intact and provide some nice cash flow that we can put to use in renovating our next project house.

I do not want to lose my one time capital gains tax exemption on my principal residence. In order to keep that, will I need to either sell that house within the next 3 years or move back into it again and live there for 2 years before I sell?

Any other advice/thoughts relating to this plan would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

[Steven Hamilton II]

Dave T is on the money again. I'm starting to think he's trying to take my job. Consider selling now and purchasing another to exclude the current gain. You may be able to pay cash for a property or have two nice down-payments. You will also still qualify for owner-oc financing on one property.

Perfectly correct in that the exclusion can be used repeatedly in 24 month intervals and in some extreme cases sooner if certain factors apply.

-Steven the Tax Guy

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