Who is responsible for condo repairs? This reader wants to know why they have to pay for painting their unit after damage from association work. Q: Last year my condo association had a company replace the roof in many of our buildings. I live on the top floor of my building. When the new roof [...]
Top 10 home design trends for 2020. Home design trends like wood details, colorful laundry rooms and double floating vanities are going to be big in 2020. Exciting home design trends, like splashes of bold colors and high tech features, were big in 2019. Now, it’s time to look ahead to 2020. It’s going to [...]
Gen Z home buying preferences in 2020. They want to become homeowners by 30 and they’re realistic about the housing market challenges they’ll face. Gen Z (ages 14-23) has high hopes for homeownership. According to research by Freddie Mac, Gen Z has a more positive perception of what it means to own a home than [...]
Who is responsible for recording a deed? This reader wants to know how a home can be titled in the previous homeowners' names 20 years after the sale. Q: I’m writing to you regarding your column relating to when you get a tax bill for a home you no longer own. There is actually a [...]
Is an unrecorded deed valid? This reader transferred ownership of the home but is receiving tax bills, are they still the legal owner of the property? Q: My wife and I had a lakehouse. The home originally belonged to her ex-husband before he went to prison. We had an agreement with him that while he [...]
How capital gains tax on the sale of a property held in a trust works. This reader wants to know if they can claim a capital loss on the sale. Q: I enjoyed your column in the Washington Post. I am trustee of my father's trust. Upon his death, his 50 percent interest in the [...]
How do I get rid of PMI on my mortgage? What can you do if you don’t want to pay private mortgage insurance on your mortgage loan? Q: I appreciate your articles and landed on your site after reading your article on prepaying your mortgage. I have a question for you about mortgage loans, private [...]
How do I avoid paying taxes when I sell my rental property? This reader wants to know if they can avoid capital gains taxes without doing a 1031 exchange. Q: My wife and I are about to sell a Chicago rental property we purchased together. The house was our first home and when we moved [...]
What happens when a seller lies on a disclosure? This home buyer discovered damage they believe the sellers’ purposely failed to disclose. Q: When Do You Have Enough Evidence to Pursue a Seller Disclosure Case? We purchased a "remodeled" home early last year. We have recently discovered after doing some deep property cleaning that the [...]
Five common holiday scams to avoid in 2019. Don’t be fooled by these popular holiday scams threatening to steal your information and then your identity. Anyone can be a victim of a scam. Just ask the 35,000 people who lost $10 million to an ongoing phone scam where scammers pretend to be from the Social [...]
