Buying a property, homestead it, selling for tax free profit

[Orita Issartel]

After the Bubble burst, my husband and I found ourselves with the loss of quite a few properties. We had nothing left besides our courage, strength and the desire to start over. By working hard for a good year we were able to save enough to buy something to move into as we had lost our homestead to foreclosure. With the little money we had we were able to buy a foreclosed property that needed a lot of work including windows as this house didn't have any. It had metal shutters! But this house had a good soul!

We had a little bit of money left to do some rehabbing  before moving in. We did quite a bit of work in this house and lots of it as we were living in it. After a few months living in chaos we were finally done. But I knew that to move ahead we needed to sell it and start over. We waited until the 2 years homestead were completed and put the house on the market for quite more that we had paid for and spent in remodeling. The good thing about it is the fact that we didn't pay a dime of capital gain taxes. That gain and our hard work has permitted us to buy more properties and now, 3 years after we sold that first property, we own 2 single families, one triplex and a duplex free and clear except for the triplex which we have a small mortgage on it.

I still like to use the homestead advantage to sell without paying capital gain taxes and have no problem moving every 2 years!!!