Congratulations! You have woven through the complicated steps to selling a home, and now your home is sold. So what now? Well, as much as you would like to leave the past behind, there are few things that you must keep in mind while you are moving on to the next stage of your life.
In this article you will find a few things that will make the transition easier after a home sale is completed.
Keep copies of your paperwork.
You may wish to never look at the paperwork again but it will come in handy when tax time comes. You will need this information, including the expenses and profits, for tax purposes and you need to keep it in case the IRS audits you. You can even write off the upgrades you made to the house when you were trying to sell it, but you have to make sure you keep the receipts for everything that you do.
Decide What To Do With The Profits
If you are not immediately purchasing another home, then take the time to consider what you are going to do with the cash. Perhaps put in a mutual fund or another investment account that will help you keep your money and also give you a reasonable return.
Go over residence and house profit tax laws.
After the home sale process, you may feel that you do not want to face more legal mumbo jumbo, but doing so now will give you a better idea about your next steps. Tax laws are always changing to reflect the national housing market, so there may be certain things you could to save money. However, you have to know about it first.
Don’t feel pressured to buy immediately.
It is okay to rent for a while as you are scoping out a new area. If you just relocated to a new city or state, immediately purchasing a home as soon as another is sold can put a lot of strain and pressure on an already stressful move. You are not immediately taxed on the house sale. You have two years to defer the money by the IRS before it is counted as house sale profits.
Reassess The Buyer’s Agent
In many cases, the real estate agent that gave you a quick property sale may not be the one for the job in helping you purchase a home. This is especially true if you are moving to new location because your past agent may not know this area very well.
How Big A Down Payment?
To receive the best loans when purchasing your home, you want to make at least a twenty percent down payment. However, do you want to put down more than that? Experts say that it may be an unwise decision for relatively young homeowners to make more than the 20 percent down payment. For younger people, they have more time to invest and make risky investment decisions that will yield an overall grater profit over the long run. Thus, less should be used in making a down payment. For older generations, however, who do not have the time or inclination to make risky ventures can put down a greater down payment resulting in greater equity.
Make Sure You Change Your Address
It’s simple with any move but can be easily forgotten among the craze after a home sale. You will need to file a change of address with the Postal Service and make sure all your accounts, such as credit card bills, magazine subscriptions, etc. have been moved to your new address.
If you have a plan in mind for what is going to go on after the sale you will be in a better position to move onto the next stage of your life.