(Home Owner Warranty) Savvy sellers offer buyers a home-warranty plan - Chicago Daily Herald

Most home sales today involve the use of a home warranty, which can protect both parties from a myriad of costly problems that could occur after a transaction closes. I am getting ready to put my home up for sale, and the agent I have chosen to market the property thinks I should offer to purchase a one-year home-warranty policy that would protect my eventual buyer against various types of problems that could arise after the sale closes. Paying $600 now to offer home shoppers such peace of mind could not only help you sell the home faster, but could literally add thousands of dollars to the price your property will eventually fetch. It’s interesting to note that one of the most popular songs of all time - “Sweet Home Alabama,” recorded by Southern rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1974 - is actually a reworking of a radio jingle that James and Laura Sweet used to market “Sweet Homes, Alabama” back in 1951. If we create the type of living trust that you recently wrote about so our home can avoid probate and pass quickly to our heirs, would we also have to forfeit the right to keep all of our resale profits tax free if we sold the home before my husband or I died? If you form a living trust and put your home into it, you and your husband will still get to keep up to $250,000 in resale profit tax free if you file your taxes singly or up to $500,000 if you file jointly, as long as you meet the standard Internal Revenue Service requirement that the home served as your primary residence for at least two of the five years before the sale. read more

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