Hey Harris,

If you own a principal residence for less than 2 years when you sell it you owe tax on any profit. If you own the property for a minimum of 2 years you will not have to pay taxes on the profits up to $500,000 if you are married and up to $250,000 if you are unmarried.

Also, if you are considering buying a home to participate in the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit there are restrictions on this as well. You will need to own the home for a minimum of 3 years or you will be required to pay back the tax credit.

I typically tell home buyers that if you do not plan to stay in a property for a minimum of 3-5 years then don't buy. It is not cheap to turn around and sell a property. It can cost you around 6% of the sales price to hire a listing agent ( this also includes the buyer's agent commission) plus seller's closing costs which can be another 2%. Unless you have a lot of equity in the home after a couple of years you could have to pay cash at closing to sell it because it likely will not have appreciated in value significantly in 2 years.

I would ask a Realtor to pull comparable sales for this town home to see if it really is a good buy. The city tax appraisal is not the same thing as the actual market value.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Britta Hinze
bhinze@kw.com

GREAT QUESTIONS HERE:

Real estate agent have professional code of ethics we can or can not make statements, such as future sales of area, future market trends.

Happy work with you, review the area provide you status of town homes SOLD in that area based on info. supplied in MLS.

No matter what when you purchase a home you receive annual tax benefits,

I have seen where beautiful homes sat on market forever while other homes no attraction sold with back up offers bidding wars. Season professionals can review pro's and con's of property with you allow you make right decision on your purchase.

GOLDEN RULE IN REAL ESTATE:
Never purchase a home direct from any of following bank, builder, for sale by owner, listing agent UNLESS you have your own realtor.

#1 QUESTION I answer across the country where POTENTIAL home buyers thought they were getting a great deal , being sued, need assistance "bailed out" of legal matters, at that time toooooo late for an agent or attorney become involved person has lost there escrow money and etc.

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None of us can predict the future, but remember it costs you 8-9% to sell, so you need to be in it long enough for it to appreciate that much. My normal advice now in Irving is I want to hear that you will be here 4-5 years and not too. My suggest would be to rent.

Very tough to guess at appreciation, but townhomes in Irving have pretty much been flat the past few years.

Remember tax values have nothing to do with market values. This is a good example. Market value below tax value is not an indicator of a "good deal".

Bruce Lynn
Keller Williams Realty
214-675-6992