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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: bearman on January 13, 2014, 10:27:08 AM

Title: Considering selling house and trying to estimate costs of doing so
Post by: bearman on January 13, 2014, 10:27:08 AM

Hi all - I purchased a townhouse for $379,000 about 13 months ago (purchased pre-built, so got a "good" price). It's a great place, but we're seriously considering downsizing.

Today, it is worth ~$410,000 (the other unit like this sold at that price a few months ago). I'm aware that if I wait until we've been there 2 years, then there aren't any taxes on the gain. However, I am trying to understand the costs if I sold now.

Is it like this: Sales Price - Purchase Price - Realtor's fees - any other seller fees = profit? And then, that profit number is taxed at my capital gains rate? If so, in this case, my profit would be zero, so therefore I don't have any taxes to pay, right?

Thanks for any insight!

Title: Re: Considering selling house and trying to estimate costs of doing so
Post by: _JT on January 13, 2014, 10:37:41 AM

The rule for capital gains when I sold my house in under two years (this was in '06, so might be slightly different) was that I could take a portion of the capital gains exemption (250k in profit for a single person), based on how long I lived there. So if I lived there one year I could exempt up to 125k in profit. In other words, you should have nothing to worry about.