All Forum Posts by: Kathryn Bowden

@Nicholas Aiola, can you tell me if the long standing tax break where one has lived in their residence for two of the last five years was left unchanged?  I thought it was to change to five of the last eight years, but just heard maybe this didn't make it through on the final bill.  Sure hoping this is the case.

Thank you @Russell Brazil, also, would owner financing have any bearing on the sale date?  Like if we close the deal on 12/31/2017, but owner finance, I assume the IRS considers that the sale date - 12/31/2017?

@Brandon Hall

@Marco G., I cannot find where this is true - that if you've lived in your primary home for less than two of five years (or five of eight), you get to prorate the time.  I did find where you can prorate it if you meet other exemptions caused by a hardship like health, etc.  I always thought that if I don't meet that two (five) years, than I'm just out of luck.  You don't happen to have a handy link where I can read about that specifically?

@Russell Brazil

Also, would the buyer normally pay for the cost to put the loan together, like they would for their own bank loan?  Or is it normally split?  Or .... ?

@Marco G., thanks for reminding me of that.  I did read that, then promptly forgot.  Definitely something to consider.

@Chris Mason and @Jimmy Dudley, yes, turns out that no appraiser in the pool would accept an expedited appraisal at this time.  So we're stuck with nearly a month delay.  But yes, agreed, we move on from here.  I will definitely ask for some compensation for the delay, basically what I would lose in holding costs for a month - I think that's more than fair.  Crazy thing is, they are now looking at trying to come up with cash.  That came out of left field!  Granted, it would be a little less than our original deal, but at this point, we would take it.  Especially since there's no guarantees what the appraisal will come up with .....

@Steve Vaughan, well I think they aren't planning on renting it.  They live a day's drive away and apparently come up here all the time.  Their original primary home is rented out, as they live elsewhere (I think they are renting where they are).  And I think they will be planning on selling their original primary home, or could do so if they needed to.  I don't know if that helps, but I don't think they're looking for an income from our house.  And I think they plan to make it their primary home maybe sort of soon.

@Steve Vaughan, oh and this is a second/vacation home for them.  I think they may want to retire here.  But not an investment property if that makes any difference.

@Steve Vaughan, that is helpful.  My understanding so far is very good credit and income.  They will put down $90,000 on a $285,000 contract price.  Balloon in about 16 months (they had asked for 18 months, and I had originally asked for 12 months).  If I offer 6%, maybe they will counter this and i have nowhere to go?

Well, for whatever it's worth - in case it makes a difference - the buyers needed to wait to file their 2017 taxes on January 1st.  They are self-employed and need to show their income for 2017 to qualify.  They wrote off everything and the kitchen sink previous to this, plus their income is increasing substantially.  Their loan officer (known as a competent and respected guy around here), has provided a pre-approval letter based on their bank statements.  They have also agreed to pay for an expedited appraisal because of the delay in underwriting.  There's a little more to it than that, but we agreed it would be in everybody's best interest for us to give them a short term loan.  We have also been in this house 4.5 years and just learned about the new tax rule pertaining to this.  We have a contract prior to 2018, but if we lose this deal we'll be stuck waiting to list this place till April - we'd be foolish to not wait the five years, but we need to sell now.  We'd also like to know for sure this deal doesn't fall through with the bank loan, plus we would be closing end of December with our owner finance, before the new tax bill kicks in,  just in case something else changes on that bill that would take away that pre-January contract exception.  So it is in both our interest's.