An NAR report highlights donations and volunteer hours to community nonprofits and Realtor associations. In 2021, Realtor associations donated a median of $12,070 to community nonprofits.

The move eliminates the need for paper checks by allowing title and real estate agents to request and receive electronic disbursement of earnest money and cash-to-close funds within the platform.

Compass laid off a significant chunk of its technology team, according to press reports that appeared to suggest hundreds of jobs slashed. This is the second round of layoffs this year.

The 90th-floor unit in the 35 Hudson Yards skyscraper is where the fictional character Kendall Roy lives high above the rest of New York City, brooding and plotting his next move against his ruthless father, media mogul Logan Roy.

Tell us whether it was old or new, something you bought for yourself, or something your broker or a colleague recommended.

Yet another report — this one by CoreLogic — shows that the rapid pace of rent increases is beginning to slow. Some of the increases occurred so quickly that they may have cooled growth.

One revenue stream is not enough to keep you afloat during market shifts. Trainer and author Bernice Ross speaks with agent Taunee English to discover how she leverages three different streams to maximize financial security.

Pacaso CEO Austin Allison and Board Chairman Spencer Rascoff spoke to Inman about the emergence of a game-changing second-home model on the eve of its launch into a new market in California.

Monthly housing starts rose 12.2 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,575,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday. August 2022 levels fell 0.1 percent year over year.

Los Angeles-based operation allegedly promised to help hundreds of distressed homeowners negotiate with lenders to lower their interest rates, monthly payments or principal amounts.

Venture capital and the rent-tech players continue to get along well as the multi-sector startup pulls in a total of $30 million to date.

You may plan on investing in a second home for personal or financial reasons. You probably want to use it as a holiday retreat, a rental for extra income, or a getaway spot for weekends. However, there may come a time when you find it necessary or smart to sell that second home. While you can profit from the sale of your house, especially if its value has improved over time, you’ll probably also have to pay capital gains tax. Thankfully, you can plan for these taxes and take action to lower them.

Selling a Second Home vs. Selling Your Primary Residence

You’ll probably pay very little or no tax if the property you sold was your principal residence. The IRS has a principle that excludes residences from capital gains taxes. You can exclude up to $250,000 in earnings from the sale of your primary house if you’re single. For married couples filing jointly, the exclusion amount is $500,000.

However, a second home cannot be excluded. A capital gains tax will be due when you sell your second house. You may be responsible for short-term or long-term capital gains tax, depending on how long you’ve held your second house.

Can you sell a second house without paying capital gains taxes? Yes, you may be able to avoid paying all or part of your capital gains taxes. You simply need to adhere to specific rules. Here are a few helpful tips to avoid capital gains tax on your second home.

If you acquired your second house for $400,000 and sold it for $500,000, you might believe your taxable capital gain is $100,000. However, this isn’t always the case. The crucial point in this situation is that the net profit, not the difference between the purchase price and the sale price, is subject to capital gains tax on the sale of the second home.

You’ve been working all of your life and living within your budget. You’ve never had trouble qualifying for a mortgage because your credit rating was high, your debt-to-income ratio was good, and you bought a house that you could afford. Now, you’re fully retired and want to sell the old family home that still has a mortgage. Your plan is to downsize into a modern, single-level near your children that is in a more expensive neighborhood than the one you’re currently in. You need to take out a new mortgage but will your qualify? 

Or maybe you just want to refinance your existing mortgage.

Possible Obstacles to a Retirement Mortgage

Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, lenders cannot discriminate against borrowers based on age. Retired borrowers, like working borrowers, simply need to show that they have good credit, not too much debt, and enough ongoing income to repay the mortgage. Two common obstacles hindering some retirees are today’s higher lender qualifications and what lenders consider to be acceptable income.

You may even have a substantial amount of assets in a 401k or IRA retirement account but that isn’t necessarily income if you are allowing it to continue growing tax-deferred in your 401k or IRA. Qualification and income requirements depend on the lender and the type of mortgage that you’re seeking. You may need to do some shopping around. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed loans come with requirements that lenders must follow. But private mortgage lenders set their own standards and can even waive some if they believe you are a good risk for other reasons.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and some private lenders do have programs designed to meet the different income and asset sources of retirees but not all loan offers are fully up to speed on how to handle assets that don’t show up on W-2 or 1040 IRS forms. The place to start is by asking the loan officer if he or she has experience qualifying loans based on retirement income sources rather than only on steady monthly income.

As the founder of Vacation Property Partners, I encourage careful thought, analysis, and prudence before taking that big step to buy a vacation home,” states Ed Kushins, vacation property visionary, and entrepreneur. “Here are some things you can consider to mitigate some of the possible mistakes noted in the Yahoo Finance article.”

Making an Emotional Investment

Kushins continues, “I couldn’t agree more that vacation home buyers need to fully understand all the financial aspects related to buying their vacation home. That’s why we created a unique, easy-to-use ‘Vacation Home Expense Calculator” that’s free on our site.

“It’s the only analysis tool we know of that’s available for buyers to see, in detail, the all-in cost of every element of owning their vacation home. And how they can cut all actually those costs in half. But while you need to do your financial due diligence, I would encourage you to not disregard the emotional investment, and make sure you place you get is going to provide you the happy memories you are buying a vacation home for in the first place.”

Not Thoroughly Researching the Neighborhood

Dismayed by overpriced Hamptons real estate — ‘and nothing was really what I wanted’ — she decided to build her own house instead of buying one.

Following the herd and conventional wisdom never got real estate investors anywhere. Try these tactics to score great deals on investment properties.

Find out how 2022 CCIM President Kenisha Robnett went from industry outsider to leader in this podcast episode with host Lee Davenport.

Dismayed by overpriced Hamptons real estate — ‘and nothing was really what I wanted’ — she decided to design her own house instead of buying one.

Tune in to this month's Connect Now episode for strategies to implement today and learn how you can continue to grow and thrive going forward.

MI Underwriting tool pulls documents and data directly from lenders, allowing mortgage insurers to make instant policy decisions at half the cost.