Texas Landowners - Public
TPWD: Private Lands Management Maincontent Local Navigation Supplemental Information print friendly search Regulations Publications Outdoor Learning Kids Game Warden Grants Get Involved Shop FAQ Calendar Español Experience Texas Fishing & Boating State Parks & Destinations Hunting & Wildlife Land & Water Doing Business Home Land & Water Land Private Private Lands Management Landowner Request For Technical Guidance ( PDF 29.9 KB ) Wildlife Management MLDP : Managed Lands Deer Permits ADCP : Antlerless Deer and Spike Control Permits LAMPS : Landowner Assisted Management Permitting System Fisheries Management Find Your Local Game Warden Resource Protection Frequently Asked Questions Workshops and Field Days Find details on the following and other landowner events on the TPWD Calendar page under Special Calendars . Partner-Sponsored Events: The Academy for Ranch Management Workshops for 2006 Prescribed Burning Advanced Prescribed Burning Restore and Manage Deer Habitat Grazing to Meet Your Objectives Rangeland Restoration and Management More details on landowner events... Private Landowners Managing Natural Resources Our intent is to provide useful information to individuals interested in managing natural resources on their property. We hope this site will answer your questions regarding wildlife management in Texas, from producing quality whitetails to increasing songbird diversity. Please give us feedback so we can provide the information you need to manage your land for wildlife. Guides, Programs and Publications about the Conservation of Private Lands and Habitat Private Lands and Habitat Program Program description Wildlife Management Plan ( Word 278.5 KB ) (Fillable Form) Wildlife Management Plan ( PDF 30.1 KB ) (Blank Form) Wildlife Management Plan ( PDF 41.4 KB ) (Form With Guidelines) Potential Income for Texas Landowners - Public Hunting Leases ( PDF 286.7 KB ) Lone Star Land Steward Award Program description Texas Water References valuable resources regarding water issues in Texas Agriculture Property Tax Conversion for Wildlife Management Downloadable wildlife management guidelines based on ecological regions Landowner Incentive Program Program Overview Farm Bill Programs for Wildlife Habitat Improvement Farm bill provisions and contact information for the Farm Bill coordinator Texas Land Trusts Overview of Texas Land Trusts Nature Tourism Information for landowners and communities Publications Agriculture Property Tax Conversion for Wildlife Management ( PDF 237.4 KB ) Using wildlife management as a qualifying agricultural practice A Place in the Country: Guidance for New Landowners ( PDF 226.4 KB ) Information about being a good neighbor, what to consider when purchasing land, property taxes, and help available to landowners. Conservation Easements ( PDF 1.6 MB ) A Guide for Texas Landowners Creating Wildlife Management Co-ops ( PDF 647.2 KB ) A guide to help facilitate the formation of wildlife management associations Prescribed Burning Associations in Texas ( PDF 199.9 KB ) Description of Prescribed Burns, Prescribed Burning Associations and a listing of Agencies and Organizations providing Technical/Financial Assistance and Training. Contact Us | Help | Accessibility | Media | Site Policies | Complaints | Intranet | State of Texas | TRAILS Search | TexasOnline | Compact with Texans Texas Parks and Wildlife Department , 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744 Toll Free: (800) 792-1112, Austin: (512) 389-4800 Content of this site © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department unless otherwise noted. Last modified: November 2, 2005, 7:58 am
real estate prices in
Pondering Real Estate Pondering Real Estate Adam Hamilton August 23, 2002 2913 Most Americans' largest asset is their home. With chaotic and turbulent economic times upon us, how will residential real estate perform in the coming years. Some thoughts... One of the greatest blessings of writing publicly is the continual stream of feedback I am offered from folks around the world. They let me know when I am wrong, help shape my worldviews and opinions, and offer dazzling new ideas that are often absolutely brilliant. Without everyone who graciously writes in to help deepen my own understanding, my own thought processes would rapidly stagnate. I am always grateful for feedback, positive, neutral, or negative. The people who take the time to write really augment the crucial foundational base off which my thoughts articulated in these essays are formed and polished. One of the most common questions people have, especially those writing from the States, regards real estate. For Americans, real estate, in the form of their primary family home, is often the largest asset they command. The value of real estate, especially the price trend, is very important to countless folks across our great nation. Many Americans I hear from, especially those with a contrarian investor mindset, wonder what will happen to residential real estate prices in the United States. The question is a very complex and difficult one, for a whole myriad of reasons. I have been pondering this matter since the US equity bubbles burst and am finally ready to commit some tentative thoughts to paper on this vexing issue. A massive caveat is in order however. I am approaching this question about real estate price trends from the perspective of a speculator. Not having a background in real estate, these ideas may be completely worthless, so please dont act on anything in this essay without at least first discussing these concepts with a real estate professional you personally trust with decades of experience. I hope this essay will simply spur further thoughts and discussions. The primary issue that I have been wrestling with in my mind regarding residential real estate price trends in the coming years concerns inflation and deflation. Inflation and deflation are simply opposing monetary phenomena, but both seem to be attacking our fragile post-bust economy in the US with great fury from opposite sides. For some background on these two titanic forces, please see my Inflation or Deflation? essay published last December. Inflation is spawned by the hooligans at the Federal Reserve printing too much paper (or electronic) money, which they have been doing in spades in recent years in a vain and fruitless attempt to stop the normal post-bubble bust process from running its full course. In the last 12 months, the various US money supply measures have exploded up with astounding violence. The absolute year-over-year M1 inflation is 5.2%, MZM 12.7%, M2 7.9%, and M3 7.4%. These numbers are downright frightening in light of historical inflationary precedent! In an inflationary environment, relatively more money chases after relatively fewer goods, services, and real estate. If the amount of money in circulation is rising faster than available real estate in the areas in which people want to live, residential real estate prices should rise. Realtors use this inflation idea to convince their customers that land prices should perpetually rise because land is scarce. Unfortunately, thats not the whole story. While real estate professionals constantly bombard us with marketing propaganda claiming that land is scarce and no more is being made, that is a myth. One example why is evident in multi-story buildings. A 10-story structure, for example, has about 10x the usable space as a single story structure, but has the same footprint in raw land terms. Land itself is not scarce, just land in locations where people want to live. For example, the sparsely-populated state of Montana has about 147,000 square miles of area, or roughly 94m acres. Assuming that only 2/3 of Montanas land is useable (the rest might be mountains or lakes, or streets in cities), that leaves 63m acres. If the entire US population is 287m people, they could all move to Montana and each live in modest estates of almost 1/4 acre, or 9,500 square feet. If their houses took up 1/3 of their plots, and each had a basement and two aboveground stories, every American could live in Montana in individual 9,500 square feet mini-mansions! Land is not scarce in general. I have seen land sell in the North Dakota Badlands for $25 per acre. I have heard of deals involving vast tracts of land in northern Australia going for under $1 per acre. Land is relatively scarce in small areas in which lots of people want or need to live however, such as New York Citys Manhattan Island. Monetary inflation should indeed bode well for real estate prices, but where will it strike? If US monetary inflation bids on barren lands in the Western states for example, residential real estate in the big Eastern cities might not benefit. Just because the general economic environment in the US is highly inflationary thanks to the Feds obnoxious and practically criminal monetary growth, that doesnt necessarily mean real estate in a given small corner of the US will do well. And then we must consider deflation! Deflation is caused by relatively less money chasing relatively more goods, services, and real estate. In deflationary environments money supplies shrink and prices drop. As long as the American people allow the private Federal Reserve bank to continue its tyranny of inflationary theft, there will never be less money in the US economy than there is today. But, muddying the waters even further, the historical line between money and credit is now exceedingly blurry. Because Americans love going into debt, they insist on buying their houses on time, with borrowed money at high interest rates, rather than working hard, saving the funds themselves, and paying cash when they can afford to buy a house outright. While deflation in the US money supplies is probably impossible with the Fed around, deflation in debt, or credit, is already happening. With Americans not actually buying houses outright but really in effect borrowing them from banks, any contraction in available debt will leave less credit available to chase houses. With less credit chasing residential real estate, prices will be forced to fall. But, just as with inflation, it is difficult or impossible to predict how the contraction in general credit available to buy houses will affect real estate in any given small area of the United States. Confused yet? Me too. There are both titanic inflationary and monstrous deflationary forces barreling down on the United States. But, residential real estate markets are all local and many will be affected differently. Deflationary forces could win out in New York City for instance, causing home values to plummet while at the same time inflationary forces win out in Wyoming causing house prices to rise. Real estate is all local. In the stock markets, it is meaningless whether you buy a share of a publicly-traded company in New York or California. In real estate where you buy your house is everything! Location, location, location. Since all real estate markets are really local, perhaps there are some warning signs that you can watch for in your little corner of America to warn of impending real estate price drops. While national generalizations about monetary inflation or debt/credit deflation regarding real estate are tough to make, zooming in to the local level for analysis has a much higher probability of success. Stock speculators throughout history have learned to carefully monitor equity markets for danger signs of maturing bubbles. All markets, including real estate, move in great cycles throughout history, marked by rampant euphoria at the tops and popular indifference at the bottoms. Perhaps applying some common bubble warning signs in equity markets to your local real estate market will yield some interesting fruit. Three common warning signs for equity bubbles are parabolic price rises, excessive valuations, and overwhelming euphoria. In real estate, parabolic price rises happen when a local market witnesses prices rocketing up by 15%+ per year, for years in a row. If you go to your local library and look at old newspaper classified ads, or else secure local data from your hometown real estate professional, you can easily graph it in Excel. If prices of comparable homes across time are shooting up on a long-term zeroed-chart like a ballistic missile, like the bubbles in the NASDAQ 2000 and DJIA 1929, you are most likely in the belly of the beast, a local unsustainable real estate bubble. Check out bubble growth graphed, it sticks out like a central banker at a rock concert! This graph shows values indexed to 100, but you can just as easily think of them in terms of dollars, starting out at $100k. Imagine you bought a house 25 years ago for $100k, a lot of money back then. If your house price appreciated by 5% per year compounded annually, it would now be worth $339k, which is totally plausible and makes sense. On the other hand, if your house had appreciated by 15% each year, it would now be worth $3,292k, or $3.3m! This is a massive increase in price, and it ought to throw up big red warning flags all across your cranium. Does it make sense for a $100k house to become a $3.3m house in only 25 years? Absolutely not, that is just silly! As the graph above shows, abnormally high growth rates make for parabolic charts, bubbles that look just like the stock market variety. If your local real estate market is ascending parabolically like the NASDAQ of 1997-2000, you are in a bubble. History unambiguously shows that no financial trend continues in the same direction forever and all bubbles ultimately pop. Unrealistic annual growth rates are a key bubble warning sign. For a deeper discussion of unrealistic growth rates over the long-term, please see my essay The Elusive Long-Term from last August. Another warning sign of equity bubbles is excessive valuations. In the stock markets, valuations are most commonly measured by the formidable yet often scorned price-to-earnings ratio. The historical average P/E ratio for US equity markets is 13.5x earnings. We can also apply this concept to real estate holdings. While most people buy a house simply to live in, it is also possible to buy a house to use as a rental property. In a residential house used as a single-family rental, there is a price, the cash paid for the house, and an earnings stream, the rent the family pays to the owner. With a real estate P and E, we can compute a rough real estate valuation multiple. If a rental property costs $100k to buy, and rents for $1000 per month, or $12k per year, its P/E ratio is 8.3. Even though most families dont own a separate rental property, with a little legwork you can check your local newspapers and calculate some rough P/E proxies for your area. Find houses for sale similar to yours to get price data points. Find houses for rent similar to yours to get earnings data points. Divide the P by the E, and you have a rough valuation estimate. I dont know what a reasonable average long-term residential real-estate P/E is. I suspect it is probably in the 10-20 range though, as that implies a 5% to 10% return on the owners capital, which is in line with historical returns available across a broad market spectrum. If you find that houses in your area are renting for implied P/Es of under 20 or so, that is a good sign that house prices may be fair. Conversely, if you find houses in your area renting for implied P/Es of over 20, valuations are probably too high and you should be wary of a potential real estate bubble. Another common warning sign of equity bubbles is rampant and unbridled widespread euphoria. Remember the NASDAQ in 1999 and early 2000? It was unreal! All anyone ever talked about was the NASDAQ, how boring. As a hard-traveling consulting road warrior at the time, I remember even the shoeshine boys at airports were talking about their tech stock investments as they polished shoes. It was just crazy, just as brilliant historians like Charles Mackay of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds fame (written in 1841) warned us it would be. It is difficult to empirically quantify euphoria, but there is no mistaking it if you keep your ears open and pay attention to what folks are talking about in your social circles. If you find yourself in a local situation where the preferred topic of conversation at every social get-together is always residential real estate and the great wealth to be made in home ownership, chances are euphoria is setting in and you should proceed with great caution. Just as parabolic price rises, excessive valuations, and overwhelming euphoria are danger signs of bubble tops in the stock markets, they are also equally valid danger signs in local real estate markets. It is probably a wise idea to periodically monitor these three fronts. In addition to stock market-like traits, there are also other factors that affect local real estate prices. These include net local migration patterns, income trends, and interest rates. One of the most important local factors in house prices is migration. If you live in or near a community that is growing as more people move in each year, that increases the pool of potential bidders competing for local houses. Prices are far more likely to rise in an environment of net in-migration. On the other hand, if your community is shrinking, both the number of people and amount of capital available to throw at residential real estate dwindles. This is a bad omen for future real estate prices in your area. Typically cities grow and rural areas shrink as people seek the jobs available in cities. This is not always the case though. As the Information Age continues to evolve, a new population of workers is growing, the information worker. Info workers deal purely in information, like a software programmer. It is often not important where they live, as they rely on the Internet to work remotely with their colleagues and clients. Info workers often earn high salaries and have the means to bid up home prices. Zeal LLC , my company, is an example of an Information Age venture. My partners and I can research, consult, trade, and write from anywhere on Earth. It makes absolutely no difference to you whether I penned this essay in Alaska, Australia, Argentina, or the Azores. Info workers, whose ranks will grow dramatically in the coming decade, are very blessed to be able to live and work from anywhere. So, if you live in an area of exceptional natural beauty and very high quality of life, prime rural areas, an influx of urban information refugees from the decaying carcasses of the megalopoli will probably help support real estate prices in your location even through tough economic times. It may make sense to buy real estate in elite communities like the Colorado or California mountain resort towns even if the US economy faces very turbulent times ahead. The Information Age will probably totally alter the dynamics of rural real estate in prized areas. Another factor to consider is income trends in your area. Ultimately, real estate prices in a given location can never increase faster than income over the long-term. Even for the vast majority who choose to go into debt to live in a house, the level of debt service they can afford is totally dependent on their income. If general income trends in your community are rising, that is a great sign and is bullish for real estate prices. On the other hand, if general income is falling, for any reason, that suggests real estate prices will have to correct downward to adjust for the loss of debt-servicing ability necessary for folks to borrow money and buy residential real estate. Interest rate levels are also intimately tied into this whole debt service capability. As all those burdened with a mortgage know, for many years most of the monthly payments are almost totally interest. It takes a long time and a huge amount of money dumped down the mortgage black hole, into bankers pockets, before the amortization starts taking good-sized bites out of principal each month. Amazingly, in the first 2/3 of a typical 30-year mortgages lifespan, the interest portion of each monthly payment exceeds the principal portion. So, if interest rates are heading higher due to Greenspans promiscuous inflation as I have discussed in past essays including Bond Anomalies Abound , it will severely retard debt-financed residential real estate purchases nationwide. Although interest rates havent turned north yet, history suggests they will be forced higher sooner or later as the bubble excesses are painfully squeezed out of the US economy. In summary, attempting to divine real estate price trends is very difficult in a macro sense. There are a great deal of diverse variables that affect real estate prices. In addition, unlike the stock market, there is no national real estate market. All real estate is local, so national trends must be examined for your particular situation in light of the local realities in your community. Nevertheless, if you do your own due diligence and integrate local real estate data you uncover into national post-bubble trends, you should be able to emerge with a fairly good idea of where your local residential real estate prices might be heading. Adam Hamilton, CPA August 23, 2002 Do you enjoy these essays? Please subscribe to our acclaimed private Zeal Intelligence newsletter today to see the good stuff each month, including our specific stock and options trades based on our research! For more information ... Zeal Intelligence For a FREE sample ... FREE Samples! To subscribe ... Subscribe TODAY! Thank you for your generous support! Contact us at... info@zealllc.com | For optimal viewing please use 800x600 or higher resolution in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Netscape 6.2
Rental Property
Rentamatic 10,000+ Letting Agents 76957 homes for rent from over 10,000 letting agents and 13,000 private landlords - 29, December 2005 find homes... find agents... tell agents... resources forums advertise members Find a Home or Room to Rent Search for Homes/Houses/Flats/Rooms to rent in the UK 1. Choose number of bedrooms All Room Studio 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+ 2. Choose Type of Advertiser : All Letting Agents Only Landlords Only 3. Type in an area, or the first part of postcode Rentamatic.co.uk was the first "free to list" property rental website in the UK in 1999 and has grown to become the largest dedicated property rental website in the UK. We carry some 60,000 to 70,000 current adverts of properties to rent all across the UK from over 10,000 letting agents and over 13,000 private landlords , with more than 150,000 people using this website every week to look for a new property to rent somewhere in the UK. If you're connected to renting property then this is the one website you really do need! SIPPs : Self Invested Pension Plans SIPPs UPDATE Gordon Brown made an amazing U-Turn on Tuesday, announcing in his Pre-Budget report that you would now NOT be able to put residential property into a pension after all. SIPPs will still happen already from April next year, and Rentamatic will keep you up to date on all the significant changes between now and 'A' Day, 6 April 2006. WE WILL STILL BE HOLDING RENTAMATIC SPONSORED SIPPs SEMINARS, ADVISING ON ALL THE BENEFITS AND OPTIONS STILL AVAILABLE TO INVESTORS IN PROPERTY Just click below for dates and locations of our Seminar Programme as it develops Click here for more information Moneyextra: Personal Loans Hot Picks Moneyextra: Credit Card Hot Picks site map | terms of use | about us | help | useful links | © rentamatic.co.uk 1999-2005 | [developed by ZambeziMedia ] Network of Property Renting Websites in the UK : Rentamatic.co.uk | Looking2Rent.co.uk | UKHomes4Rent.co.uk | UKHomes4Rent.com | Rent-Rent-Rent.com
buy property in order
Bulgaria property portal, buying property in bulgaria, buy bulgarian properties, bulgarian properties - imoti.net Property in Bulgaria Bulgarian Regions About Bulgaria Buying information bg Bulgaria 's biggest property portal - Search for any real estate for sale or for rent ( imoti = real estate in bulgarian) Sales Rents Off plan property Agents Home Agent login Articles Real estate forums Search for sale for rent investment email alert saved list email alert Get ads that match your criteria sent straight to your inbox. Create email alert Agencies Find a Real Estate agent News Real estate news Expo and forums Tourism Region info Sites international properties Buying information Having in mind that in two years Bulgaria will be joining the European Union, the Bulgarian property market presents very good possibilities for potential investments which can be quite profitable in the long-term. There are diverse offers on the market which can meet different requirements and have considerably better value for money than in other European destinations. Most of the people looking for property in Bulgaria usually want to find holiday home but the number of investors who buy property in order to profit in the long term is also increasing. If you start to consider buying a property in Bulgaria you have to take into consideration the following points: 1. First of all, you have to identify a property which corresponds to your requirements. 2. If you want to buy land as well, take into consideration that you’ll have to register a company as the law still doesn’t allow the purchase of land by foreigners. 3. If you do not want to acquire the land, then you directly move to the next step, i.e. negotiate the price of the property. 4. Then you can sign a preliminary contract and the property will be removed from the market. 5. The next step is to carefully check the title deed documents, licences and permissions, debts on the title and terms of contract. 6. From there you proceed to signing of the contract of purchase and confirming in front of a notary public the buying of the property. 7. If you have completed all the previous steps, it means that you are already an owner of property in Bulgaria. 8. Do not forget to insure you property after the purchase. 9. Remember to register your new property with the local authorities within 60 days following completion of the deal. What can be found on the market? The prices for a villa close to the sea are about £30,000 and for the ones in rural areas they can be even around £5,000. In many cases though, you will have to make some refirbishments in order to have the usual standards of living. In all cases, it is advisable to personally visit the property and not to buy it after judging only the photos. You can also consider the purchase of a new development under construction, which is now wide spread practice, especially in the capital, in ski resorts and on the coast. Properties may be purchased 'off plan' either directly from the developer or via brokers. Law on foreigners owning property in Bulgaria According to the Bulgarian Constitution, foreign individuals can buy buildings but not land. Therefore, the most common method for foreigners buying property in Bulgaria where they also wish to own the land is to set up a company which then owns the land and the buildings. The law is expected to change on this within the short to medium term with the expected entry of Bulgaria into the European Union (2007). This historic restriction is one of the reasons why property in Bulgaria is so competitively priced compared to Western and Central Europe. Current amendments to the constitution will allow citizens of countries with which Bulgaria has agreements on land sales to buy land in 2007 when the amendments would come into effect, while EU citizens will have the right to buy land in 2014. In the meantime a company is still required for land ownership. If your purchase includes land a Limited Liability Company (OOD) will need to be formed. Who can form a Limited Liability Company & how? A foreign or Bulgarian person (judicial or physical). The company owners will be liable for the company's obligations to the value of his/hers share in the company's registered capital. Articles of Incorporation are prepared & signed by all shareholders. A company bank account is opened to collect all share capital. The minimum share capital required is 5,000 leva. Shareholders at time of registration must have paid up at least one third of their respective shares. It is required that at least 70% (3,500 leva) of the capital is raised at time of registration. The company exists from the moment it is added to the Commercial Register of the district court of where the company will be based. The entry is made upon issue of a district court decision for the incorporation. The following documents must be available at the time of the submission of the application to the district court: 1. Articles of incorporation; 2. Memorandum for appointment of Directors; 3. Proof that each shareholder has paid at least one third of its interest, but not less than 10 leva; 4. Proof that at least 70 per cent of the registered capital has been paid. The Bulgarian State Gazette is the official paper within which all Bulgarian legislation is published. Publication of the company entry in the Commercial Register does not complete your company formation, it announces to the general public the act of formation. The process of forming your company can take anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. Finally, your new company will need to register immediately with the National Tax Register Authority. The costs involved are: 3,500 leva = 70% share capital. Administrative costs (payable to the state & registration court) are 250 leva (just over £70). This is the minimum capital that you need to raise for registration. Once the entire share capital has been paid up these funds can be accessed and withdrawn. Allow betwen EUR 500 - 700 for charges relating to the formation and registration of your company. Real Estate Tax According to the Bulgarian tax legislation the buyer has to pay notary and municipal fees. The notary fees are paid on the higher of the market price or the book value of the property at varying rates, with the maximum being BGN 3,500. In addition, 2% of the market value of the property is paid to the municipality where the property is situated upon completion of the purchase. Local taxes and rates The owner of a building or land in Bulgaria has to pay a property tax. The tax is equal to 0.15% of the book value of the property. There are no local taxes for arable land. The owners also have to pay waste-collection fees which are determined when the ownership is registered with the municipality, which should be done within 60 days of completion. Value Added Tax Transactions with land and lease of property for residential purposes are exempt from VAT (Value Added Tax), all other real estate transactions are subject to VAT of 20% if the seller is VAT registered. The buyer is entitled to a VAT refund, provided that it is registered for VAT purposes. Real Estate Agencies The Real Estate Agencies have varying charges for their services - from 3% of the purchase price to about 10%! Some agencies can also set up a “minimum” commission which does not depend on purchase price. Some agents may also charge for the viewing of the properties. Links kaldata.net astrology relocation imoti.net Help About us How to add property Contact us counter
Rental Property How much
Selling Your Rental Property Intuit Home Intuit Products Support | Order Status | Shopping Cart Home Online Products Desktop Products Business Tips & Resources Sign In Automatic Renewal My Downloads Tax Tips & Topics Business Taxes Education & Taxes Employment Taxes Family & Taxes Homeowners & Taxes Investments & Taxes Retirement & Estate Taxes Tax Law & the IRS Tax Planning & Savings Tax Prep & Filing E-mail this Print this Selling Your Rental Property How much money am I going to make, after taxes, when I sell my rental property? Are you finally selling your rental property? Was dealing with that last tenant just more than you can stand to go through again? Did you just hear that the vacant land next to your property will be developed into a state college causing your rental property to realize a 10-fold increase in value? Are you approaching retirement and eager to liquidate your investment in order to travel the world, or just relax and take it easy? After finding a buyer and discussing a price, you may wonder what the sale will cost you in taxes and what your after-tax cash flow will be. Before you close the sale, then, you should figure out how much of your proceeds will go to Uncle Sam and how much you will be able to keep. You want to know how much cash you can expect to flow through your hands, after paying fees, costs, and taxes. How can I figure my gain ? Is my gain taxed as ordinary income or capital gain ? How do I report the sale ? What is my after-tax cash flow ? How Can I Figure My Gain? The amount you get for your rental property is the gross sales price. The first step in calculating your taxable gain is to figure out your net sales price. 1. Subtract All Your Selling Costs from the Gross Sales Price. You'll need a copy of your closing or settlement statement at hand to help you identify the costs involved in selling the property. But don't just assume that all costs on your closing statement can be considered selling costs . Pull out any rental expenses. Your closing statement may include items that were prepaid by you, such as property taxes, insurance, or homeowner's association fees. It may also include items that remain unpaid by you as of the sale date, such as rental deposits or property management fees. These items are ordinary and necessary rental expenses that you should report as part of your rental income or loss on Schedule E rather than as part of your property sale. After filtering out the rental items, add up all the selling costs; such as: Commissions on the sale Document recording costs Legal fees related to the sale Survey fees Title fees or costs Transfer fees Now, subtract your total selling costs from your gross sales price. The result is your net sales price. For example, if you have a total selling cost of $25,400, and your gross sales price is $550,000, your net sales price is $524,600. But how much of the net sales price is your profit, or taxable gain? 2. Subtract the Cost of the Property from the Net Sales Price. To figure your profit, or taxable gain on the sale, you need to subtract the cost of the property from the net sales price. But, naturally, adding up all your costs can take a little work. You need to know how much the property has cost you, starting way back when you bought it, and proceeding through the years as you made improvements (costing your more money), or took deductions for depreciation over the years (reducing your cost). The result is called your adjusted basis, because it has been heavily adjusted over the years, and it forms the basis of any calculation of profit or loss. (For more details, see The Tax Aspects of Selling Your Home . Subtract your adjusted basis in the property from the net sales price, to get your taxable gain. Example: Sally owns a rental property that she originally purchased for $320,000 (of which the portion allocable to land is $100,000), and over the years she has taken depreciation deductions of $115,667 for this property. She is considering an offer to sell the property for $450,000. She estimates that the selling costs will include real estate commissions of 6 percent and other costs of 1 percent of the sales price. Sally's net gain on the sale would be $214,167, calculated as follows: Gross sales price $450,000 Less selling costs at 7 percent 31,500 Net sales price $418,500 Less adjusted basis: Cost basis $320,000 Less depreciation allowed 115,667 Adjusted Basis 204,333 Net gain $214,167 Is My Gain Taxed as Ordinary Income or as a Capital Gain? When you sell a property you've owned for more than a year, the gain (the selling price less your selling costs and your adjusted basis in the property) is taxed at capital gains rates, which are lower than the regular income tax rates. The particular capital gains rate that's used depends on several factors. Most capital gains on sales of rental property are taxed at 15 percent but any gains due to depreciation you have already taken are taxed at 25 percent. Ordinary income, on the other hand, can be taxed with rates as high as 35 percent in 2004. Therefore, it's important to understand how much of your gain will be taxed at ordinary income tax rates and how much will be taxed at capital gains rates. Note: The tax rates addressed here are federal taxes rates only. Any state taxes that may also be due are in addition to the federal taxes. For Property Purchased in 1987 or Later If your property was purchased in 1987 or later: all of your gain will be considered capital gain, but there's a catch: while most long-term capital gains are taxed at a maximum rate of 15 percent, any portion of your gain that's attributed to any depreciation taken on your property is taxed at a special maximum rate of 25 percent. This applies to all depreciation taken on the property. (Note: Beginning in 1987, the only kind of depreciation you could take on the property was the straight-line method). Example: Continuing our example in the last section, Sally placed her rental property into service as a rental in 1988. She decided to depreciate her property on the straight-line basis over 27.5 years, so her total depreciation deductions from 1988 through 2003 amounted to $115,667. Of her $214,167 gain, $115,667 would be taxed up to the special 25 percent capital gains rate for depreciation and $98,500 would be taxed at the 15% capital gains tax rate. For Property Purchased Before 1987 If you acquired the property before 1987, the ordinary income portion of a gain on the sale of Section 1250 property consists of any additional depreciation taken on the property. Additional depreciation is accelerated depreciation that goes beyond what the depreciation would have been if it had been calculated using the straight line method. If your property was purchased before 1987 for residential rentals, additional depreciation on property acquired before 1987 is calculated for all years after 1975. For nonresidential rentals, additional depreciation is calculated for all years after 1969. The total additional depreciation (which is taxed at ordinary income tax rates) is deducted from the net gain in order to determine the amount of the gain subject to capital gains rates. This process is what's known as depreciation recapture. Essentially, because you were able to deduct depreciation expenses from ordinary income while you owned your rental property, you now pay the price at the time of sale: part of the gain on your property is taxed at ordinary income tax rates, in this case, your additional depreciation. Example: Joe purchased his rental property in 1985 for $320,000. He depreciated his property on an accelerated basis over 18 years, resulting in total depreciation deductions of $235,000. Had he used the straight-line method to calculate depreciation, his depreciation deduction would have been $229,000. Under the rules applicable to property purchased before 1987, his additional depreciation is $6,000. Assuming he sold his property for $418,500, of his $333,500 gain, $6,000 would be taxed at his ordinary tax rates and $327,500 would be taxed as capital gain. For more information see, FAQ on Capital Gains . Giving a Nod to Section 1231 Rental real estate, held for more than one year, falls under the definition of Internal Revenue Code Section 1231 and is therefore called Section 1231 property . A gain from the sale of section 1231 property can be either ordinary income to you (as a result of additional depreciation recapture if the property was purchased before 1987) or capital gain, or both. Section 1231 gains that are not subject to depreciation recapture (which is ordinary income) are long-term capital gains. Good news: If you have a loss on the sale of Section 1231 property, the loss is an ordinary loss, meaning that it reduces your ordinary income, not your capital gains income. Section 1231 gives you the best of both worlds, because gains are long-term capital gains (after depreciation recapture) and losses are non-capital, or ordinary, losses. How do I Report the Sale? You report the sale of a rental property on IRS form 4797: Sales of Business Property. The gross sales price, cost or other basis plus expenses of sale, depreciation allowed or allowable, adjusted basis, and total gain are all reported on Page 2, Part III, lines 20 through 24. If the property is Section 1250 property (which is just about any rental property), any ordinary income recapture is calculated on line 26. The capital gains portion of your gain is determined by subtracting the additional depreciation from the total gain. These amounts are carried to page 1 of Form 4797, where this capital portion is netted with other Section 1231 transactions. Transfer the net of Section 1231 transactions from page 1 of Form 4797 to Form 1040, Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses. Put the ordinary income portion of your gain on line 14 of Form 1040, while your net capital gains from Schedule D are carried to line 13a of Form 1040. If your sale results in a loss, the entire loss is carried to line 14 on Form 1040 and is available to offset income from other sources. What is My After-Tax Cash Flow? Now that you have calculated your tax, you can calculate your net cash proceeds from the sale of the property. Enter your net sales price. Subtract any outstanding loan, to get a subtotal. Multiply the net gain (calculated in the previous example) by the capital gain rate of 25 percent on the part of the gain that represents depreciation and 15 percent on the rest of the gain. Subtract that figure from the subtotal, to see your net cash flow. Example: In our example, assume that Sally had decided she would not sell the rental property unless she could wind up with at least $200,000 cash after taxes and loan repayment. Assume she had an outstanding loan of $125,000 and other taxable income in her return. Her capital gains rates are affected by her other income. She calculates her after-tax cash flow as follows: Net sales price $418,500 Less repayment of the outstanding loan 125,000 Subtotal $293,500 Capital gains taxes at up to 25% & 15% $43,692 Net cash flow (before state taxes) $249,808 Based upon the above calculation, Sally would prefer to sell the rental property because her after-tax cash flow meets her requirements. Caution: Different states have different rules for taxing capital gains. Here, we have not considered the state tax impact. But, before making the sale, you should familiarize yourself with the state tax rules. If the property is located in a state other than your state of residence, it may be wise to study the rules of both the state in which the property is located and your state of residence, because both states may be very interested in your gain. For more on capital gains, see FAQ on Capital Gains . Home | Online Products | Desktop Products | Business | Tax Tips & Resources | Support Center | Site Index Intuit | Privacy Promise | Feedback | Quicken | Affiliates ©1997-2005 Intuit Inc. Trademark Notices By accessing and using this page you agree to the Terms of Service Software License Agreement