No one likes paying taxes. But if you’re selling your home, there may be ways you can leverage your home sale to lower your tax bill.
So how, exactly, do you do that?
A recent article from realtor.com outlined key tax deductions, write-offs, and exemptions available to home sellers, including:
Selling costs. Legal fees. Escrow fees. Real estate commissions. Even home staging! As long as the property is a primary residence and you’ve lived in the home for at least two of the last five years, any expenses directly related to selling your home are deductible in that you can subtract them from the sales price of your home, which impacts your capital gains tax—and can definitely help you save some money.
Home improvements. If you improved your home in order to make it more appealing to buyers, those qualify as selling costs—and, as such, you can deduct them from your final sales price. However, these need to have been directly related to the sale of your home and done within 90 days of the closing.
Property taxes. Before you sold your home, you owned it—which means you can deduct property taxes (up to $10,000) for the tax year when you owned and lived in the home.
Closing costs are part of the upfront cash you will need when you purchase your new home. These costs are for the mortgage lender and title company for the services related to your loan. Your closing costs will be greatly reduced if you are paying cash since there is no mortgage lender services to pay.
How Much Do I Have To Pay and Why?
Many buyers are not aware of the additional cost of closing or have an idea how much it is. (Another reason to use a good REALTOR®️). These costs cover, among other things, appraisal, title search, loan servicing fees, title searches and escrow for property taxes. These costs are only paid at closing so if the home purchase does not close, you are not responsible for the work already put in by the title company and the lender.
Closing costs can range from 3% to 6% depending on the lender, title company, type of loan and location of home. This means on a $200,000 mortgage, you should expect to pay around $6,000 to $12,000 in closing costs. The seller DOES have closing costs as well. Since there is no lender on their side, the seller closing costs are usually around 1%-2%.
There are some ways to get assistance with closing costs. There are some programs that assist, for example the Florida Hometown Heros Housing Program is allowing qualified home purchasers to receive up to 5% for their closing costs. Click here to see if you qualify. Hometown Hero Qualification. Also, the buyer can ask the seller to contribute to their closing costs. There are, however, limits based on the type of loan and other factors.
According to Realty Times:
“In 2019, the average paid for closing costs in the U.S. was $5,749, including taxes.
The highest closing costs on average are in parts of the Northeast, including Washington D.C., Delaware, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Washington State also has some of the highest closing costs in the nation.
States with the lowest average closing costs include Indiana, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kentucky.”
What Are The Fees
On your itemized breakdown you will get from your lender and title company, you may see some of these fees:
Loan Application Fee
Attorney Fee
Escrow for property insurance and/or Home Owners Insurance
Mortgage Insurance
HOA transfer and escrow fees
Title Insurance
Administration fees
It is important to remember you can shop around for your lender. The closing fees vary from lender to lender so make sure you are asking the right questions. In Florida, the seller typically chooses the closing title company so you may not have nay influence over that. However, by the seller choosing the title company, they will pay a bigger cost on title insurance. Not all sellers are willing to provide concessions, but if it can get negotiated at the time of contract it could save you thousands! 💰💰💰
Lastly, and I think most importantly, find a good REALTOR®️ that is knowledgeable about all aspects of the transaction and is trustworthy to help you save as much money as possible when you find your dream home🏡
It’s certainly worth the wait and effort, but saving up for a down payment on a house can feel like it’ll take forever!
If only there were a fast-forward button… (Or a surefire way to win the lottery!)
…but there’s not. It simply takes time and patience.
To help you muster up the patience and make the time pass more quickly, here are 9 ideas to help you get through the time it takes to save up for your new home:
Not only can finding a side gig help you reach your savings goals faster, it can also keep you busy and your mind occupied while you work toward your goals.
Seeing the joys of homeownership crammed into beautiful thirty minute segments isn’t helpful to those trying to be patient, so make sure you cut the cord.
Keep going with your goal in mind, and whenever the going gets tough, remember why you’re being patient. If you can tie your efforts to the outcome, then the journey won’t seem quite as bad.