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Vol. 10 No.3
November 27, 2017
www.csrej.com
3 Reasons home inspections kill deals BY DYLAN CHALK
Realtors square up after house passes tax bill over 10 years, cuts the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent and, in a move that affects only the wealthiest households, nearly doubles the threshold for the estate tax and then phases it out entirely. To pay for these and other measures, the bill would institute these changes: · Eliminates or curtails most itemized deductions, except those for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. The MID would be limited to mortgages of up to $500,000—half of the current limit— and the property tax deduction would be capped at $10,000. · Restricts the exclusion on gains from the sale of a principal residence by requiring households to live in the house for five of the last eight years, instead of two of the last five years. The bill also reduces the benefit for higher-income
The "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" was passed by a vote of 227 to 205 along party lines.
households. The exemption today applies to proceeds of up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly.
Houses and Home Inspectors Do Not Kill Deals
· Nearly doubles the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples, but that increase is largely offset by elimination of the personal and dependency exemptions— a change that could hit larger families, as well as those with older children, particularly hard.
The House passage is the first of a multistep process before tax reform legislation can be enacted into law. In the Senate, the tax-writing Finance Committee is already working on its version of tax reform, and the full Senate may vote on the bill the week after Thanksgiving.
From my experience, there are three home inspection situations that lead to a canceled transaction. You might be surprised to hear two things are not on this list: the house and the home inspector. Having spent more than a dozen years performing more than 5,000 structural home inspections, I have found that some real estate agents do think that the home or the home inspector is to blame, but let’s step back for a minute and look at what really happens in these situations. When the findings uncovered in a home inspection significantly alter the buyer’s expectations about what they thought they were buying, this causes problems.
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See Inspections | Page 4
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The House on Thursday [November 16] passed a tax reform package that the National Association of REALTORS® calls a tax hike on many middle-class homeowners and says would lower property values for all homeowners. “It’s disappointing to see this legislation move forward, but the real work to shape this debate is just getting started,” NAR President Elizabeth Mendenhall said in a statement. The bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs act, was passed by a vote of 227 to 205 along party lines. It was approved entirely by Republicans—although several members of the party joined Democrats in opposition. The bill, which would increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion
If I were a real estate agent and I had worked weeks, months, or even years with a client, I would dread home inspection time. Experienced real estate professionals know there are hundreds of ways a deal can fall apart, from credit and financing problems to appraisals to just plain cold feet. But certainly, one of the more common deal killers is the home inspection. But it doesn’t have to be. To help prevent home inspection time from becoming contract termination time, here are a few thoughts from the point of view of an experienced home inspector.
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