|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If You're Thinking About Selling Your House |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many factors should be considered if you are thinking about selling your house. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
1. Your house is an asset as well as a home. If you have children, their emotional needs have to be considered. At this time of turmoil and change in their lives, the house should not be sold for a few years, if possible. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. If you receive the house through a divorce settlement or judge's decree while your spouse gets the liquid assets, think carefully about whether you have enough cash to live comfortably in the house or whether you should move into less expensive living quarters. If the monthly payments on the house are small, you might as well stay where you are. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. As explained in Chapter 14, Dividing Your Assets, if you are careful, you may gain some tax benefits, depending on when you sell your house and how old you are when you sell it. If you buy a new home within two years of selling your house and if the new home costs at least half the sales price of your current house, you will not have to pay capital gains taxes on the profit. (The original purchase price of your home plus the cost of improvements are compared to the sales price to determine the profit or loss and the capital gains tax that will result.) |
|
|
|
|
|
