selling a home/taxes

[reg]

im from ohio. we're selling our home after 29 years due to poor
health & were basically "forced" to buy a one floor condo. we've
had our home listed with 2 different real estate agencies & now
have it listed ourselves, all in the past 3 years, but with no luck.
it is not over-priced and in a very good location - a quality home,
but still, the real estate market is pretty down in our area. we
want to take advantage of the tax exemption law that exisits for
the 250,000/500,000 home sales, however, if our home doesnt
sell within the 3 out of 5 year time frame, even with our best
and most aggressive efforts, can we still take advantage of this
without long term capitol gains tax being imposed... Remember,
we were forced to sell our home in the first place due to poor
health, we wouldnt have put our home on the market otherwise.
is there an exception to this rule in our case??????

 

[HomeGuru]

Post on the Tax Law board.

 

[J. Ducaine]

first of all, work out your arrangement with all of these agents. you only need one and be sure to tell him/her that you'll offer no more than 5% of the sales price - I question whether theyre even worth this much!

Now, what are you talking about? If you are married, you can take $500,000 exclusion of the gain - that's that, subject to the following: you must have owned & occupied it for 2 of the 5 years before the sale / exchange. Further, the two years need not be continuous. You need only to have occupied it for 730 days (365x2) during the entire 5-year period. Vacations, short & seasonal absences are allowed. If this actually does not apply to you for some reason, there is a hardship exclusion that fits your situation perfectly - as a competent accountant.

 

[HomeGuru]

first of all, work out your arrangement with all of these agents. you only need one and be sure to tell him/her that you'll offer no more than 5% of the sales price - I question whether theyre even worth this much!

**A: there is no need to work out arrangements with all (only 2 noted) agents. Why use the same agents that were not successful to begin with? and I see oyu are making up the commission amount and you must know the agents pretty well to comment on their worth.
*********

Now, what are you talking about? If you are married, you can take $500,000 exclusion of the gain - that's that, subject to the following: you must have owned & occupied it for 2 of the 5 years before the sale / exchange. Further, the two years need not be continuous. You need only to have occupied it for 730 days (365x2) during the entire 5-year period. Vacations, short & seasonal absences are allowed. If this actually does not apply to you for some reason, there is a hardship exclusion that fits your situation perfectly - as a competent accountant.