Posted by BrokerScott (Mich) on September 18, 2003 at 08:12:21:
You don’t pay capital gains on rent. On rent you pay income tax on the differance between your rents recieved and you expenses. You pay capital gains on items that you sell for more than what you paid for them. In this case however, this house has been your presonal residence for 7 years- therefore you meet the captial gains exclusion requirement that you have lived there for 2 of the last 5 years. You can sell it outright and not have to pay capital gains. You can rent or RTO it for up to ONE DAY LESS THAN 3 YEARS and not pay capital gains. If you sell it after that time, you do have to pay capital gains.
I have found that the free online services that are available to me (except the MLS) are notoriously unreliable. Any Realtor would be happy to do a CMA free of charge, in hopes of that if you DO list your home with a Realtor, that you would list with them. Frankly, and I mean this in the nicest posible way, your questions reveal that you ought to have professional assistance, or take some time to do considerable additional studying. best, Scott