Category: Buying/Selling/Renting

After a Medicaid recipient who received nursing home care or other long-term services dies, federal law requires the state Medicaid program that paid those bills to seek repayment from the person’s estate, and in many cases that estate includes a house. The mandate, written into federal law since 1993, reaches recipients who were age 55…

Long-term nursing home care can cost several hundred dollars a day, and Medicaid remains the primary payer once a resident’s own savings run out. Federal Medicaid rules generally count a home as an available resource when an applicant seeks nursing-facility coverage, which can force a sale or a lien against the property. A specific type…

A growing number of homeowners are using a legal filing called a transfer-on-death deed to steer a house directly to a named heir the moment ownership changes hands after death, sidestepping the probate court process that otherwise ties up an estate for months. The document works much like a beneficiary designation on a bank account…

For decades, many older Americans have quietly built home equity that dwarfs what they originally paid for the property when they first bought it. When that home passes to a son, daughter, or other heir after the owner’s death, the tax code treats the transfer very differently than it would treat a sale made during…

Selling an investment property usually means handing over a share of the profit to the IRS the same year the sale closes. Section 1031 of the tax code offers real estate investors, including retirees who own rental property, a legal way to postpone that bill by rolling the proceeds into another property instead of cashing…

Millions of homes, bank accounts, and vehicles in the United States are titled with a few extra words that quietly determine what happens to the property the moment one owner dies. That phrase, “joint tenants with right of survivorship,” is one of the most common ways couples and family members hold property together, and it…

Falling behind on homeowners association dues can put a house at risk of foreclosure even when the mortgage payment is current and up to date. Most state laws let an HOA or condo association record a lien against a property for unpaid assessments, fines, and related charges, and once that lien is in place, the…

A life estate deed splits ownership of a house into two separate interests the moment it is signed. One person keeps the right to live in the home for as long as they are alive. Another person, usually an adult child, holds the right to take full ownership automatically the instant that first person dies….

For many retirees, the family home is the largest single asset they own, and decades of appreciation can turn a modest purchase into a property worth many times what was paid for it. That paper gain raises an obvious worry at sale time: how much of it goes to taxes. The federal tax code answers…

Most homeowners assume that once the general contractor is paid, the job is financially closed. That assumption can be expensive. Under the mechanic’s lien laws that exist in every state, a subcontractor or a materials supplier who never got paid can attach a legal claim to a home even when the owner already paid the…