maryland heights

[flynavyj]

i think if you were planning to move in 10 years it may be worthwhile, if you're planning for 5 or less, i'd probably avoid buying. We purchased in Kansas City and only stayed for a year (job change forced the move)...ended up selling the place for the same price we bought it for over the 08-09 timeline, but still had to pay out around 8k in closing costs, realtor expenses, etc...gah, i hate writing big checks just to get out of something. Luckily for us, the first time home buyer credit worked to offset our out of pocket loss, and we essentially broke even on the deal.

[BoomBoxing]

^But don't you have to repay that if you sell within 3 years?

[aragx6]

^I think he meant that they bought their house in St. Louis with the tax credit.

[BoomBoxing]

But if you owned a proprety in the last 3 or so years I believe you were not eligible for the first time home buyers tax credit.

[aragx6]

Ha, good point. Now I'm equally confused.

[BoomBoxing]

I suspect the IRS has taken flynavyj into custody for questioning as we speak. I don't think we'll be hearing from him for a while.

[aragx6]

I just found something out about the tax credit like 5 minutes ago: apparently you only have to pay it back if you sell your house for a profit. If you lose money or even just break even you don't have to repay it.

[BoomBoxing]

See I've heard that too, but further investigation found that it was not quite so simple. I even asked over on the Real Estate board and I was advised to just talk to a CPA.

[aragx6]

^Good info. I have a friend who is splitting from her husband of just 1 year, and they're trying to figure out what to do with their house.

I'll tell her she needs a good CPA. Their realtor is her brother in law, and I don't think he's the brightest crayon in the box.

[flynavyj]

sorry for all the confusion, lol. The statement above regarding making a profit and repaying the 8k is true. However, the stress it caused as you receive letters from the IRS saying "we want our money back" isn't exactly fun.

We were under the first home buyers credit too, and not the latter 8k one. Ours was to be repayed regardless, but the amount you repay was dependent on the profit you made on the home. We lost 1k on the sale price (waaaay more out of pocket) which made us exempt from the repay...two tax years later, i think we're in the clear.