Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Connecticut
Investment property resale
Is there a minimum time that I must keep a property before reselling that property before incurring capital gains or having to be listed as a broker or dealer? Also do you have any advice for someone who wants to do these fixer-upper properties,or could you refer me to any resources?
Thank you so much!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Investment property resale
If you do more than 3 per year, you'll probably be considered as "in the business" of buying & selling real estate, in which case certain tax rules apply. But in any event, you can avoid the capital gain only if 1) you've occupied the property as your principal place of residence for 2 out of the last 5 years, 2) it hasn't been used as rental property, 3) the sale price is less than $250,000 ($500,000 for jointly owned property) and 4) you haven't sold or exchanged another principal residence within the last 2 years.
There are plenty of books in the library about this. You'll need a good lawyer (us, of course!) and a good CPA (Kevin Kelleher in Farmington is very good).