Estate Plan Mistake Q: I'm wondering if my husband made an estate plan mistake. He died without a will. We have one son and when my husband passed, my son and I signed an agreement that said if I sold any of the properties, we’d both need to agree to the sale. When I sold [...]
2024: Worst Year for Home Sales? Just before the election, the National Association of Realtors announced that 2024 would likely be an even worse year for home sales than 2023. It could wind up as the worst since the late 1990s. Existing home sales fell one percent in September to a seasonally adjusted rate of [...]
Avoiding Capital Gains Tax When Selling Vacation Home Q: We are selling a vacation home. We were told that we should put some of the money from the sale of the property into a 1031 to avoid paying a 28 percent tax on the sale. Is there another way to avoid paying capital gains tax? [...]
Zoning: Splitting Lots Q: I have a zoning question. My daughter and son-in-law bought a cabin as their second/vacation home near Seattle a couple of years ago. The property is actually two lots (with two separate tax parcels). And, the cabin on one of the lots. But there is only one deed and one mortgage. [...]
Timeshares: How Difficult Are Timeshares To Sell? Before buying a timeshare think about how tough it will be to sell it We get many questions from readers on timeshares. By far, the most common issue is how owners can get rid of their timeshare. There are many reasons why an owner would want to sell [...]
Home Sale Tax Exclusion: Residency Requirements What does the IRS really say about the home sale tax exclusion? Q: I read your column regularly and now I have a question for you. We own two houses. One is in Chicago, which we purchased in 2010. The other is in Arizona, which we purchased in 2012. We [...]
Selling a Home in an Irrevocable Trust Q: I read your article on living trusts recently. You detail the workings of property in a revocable trust and what one should do with the funds upon the sale of the property. Would the same things apply to an irrevocable trust? I am the creator of a [...]
Home Sale Tax Exclusion: What are the rules? Q: I learned something new in your recent article about the home sale tax exclusion. I did not know that a person could receive the benefit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rule that allows homeowners to exclude from federal taxes the first $250,000 in profits from [...]
Condo deconversion is being forced on all owners. Is that fair? Q: My daughter purchased her first home - a one bedroom condominium in a suburb of Chicago back in 2017. Recently, she was notified that the building was going to go through a condo deconversion become a rental building. We are questioning all parts [...]
Condo Reserves: Buyer Beware Read the first part of this story, Condo Reserves: A Growing Issue. A few weeks ago, we wrote about condo and co-op reserves and the new Florida State law. This new law, passed in the wake of the Surfside collapse in 2021, mandates condo and co-op buildings that are at least [...]
