Are foreclosures the only type of sales of property that are taking place in the US?

Q. I want to know the types of property sales that are taking place in the US, for instance in my country I can always buy a house directly from the owner himself when he wants to sell it, but what about the US?

A. Of course not.
All normal types of sales occur too.
Not everyone has trouble paying their mortgage.
Yes, you can approch someone and buy directly, unless they are listed with an agent.

Original Question

Do I have to pay taxes on the US on a property sale out of the country?

Q. My father inherited me a piece of land in Nicaragua. I want to sell it and I am planning to wire the money from the sale directly to my bank account in the US. It is about $100k. Do I have to report this money to the IRS? Do I have to pay any taxes on that money?

Thank You,

A. If you are a US citizen then you are taxed on income that you earn no matter where in the world that you have earned it. You will need to keep track of several things in this case though that may help with your taxes. First of all, you need to know what the value of the land was when you inherited it from your father (I'm assuming that you inherited it when he passed away?). The value of the land on his date of death is your cost basis, which you will subtract from your sale proceeds of $100,000 to figure out what your gain, if any, is. Also, inheriting anything automatically makes the gain from selling long-term gain, which is taxed at a preferential tax rate, maximum rate of 15%. Also, if there are any taxes that you owe to Nicaragua in relation to the land you can get a full or partial credit for that on your tax return. You would fill out form 1116 to figure out how much, if any foreign tax credit you get.

Original Question

Does it seem like Foreclosed Homes are not in the forefront promoted by the Real Estate Industry?

Q. The county I live in has over 6,000 foreclosed homes, yet they seem to try to fetch within 10% of homes for sales by owners (non-distress) and new home communities. Most foreclosed homes I've seen were torn up, ignored, out of date, and simply set aside and not promoted by agents who showed us properties.

Is this a trend?
Attitude being conveyed to members of the RE Industry? Banks not pressured for cleaning their books (or disinterested in having the homes in good repair & not truly discounting the Buyer because of the inconvenience?)

What is your spin on this?
Foreclosed homes use to be *desired* by Investors & general Home Buyers alike...

100807 3:40

A. Foreclosures get a really bad reputation due to the fact that they are foreclosures. Not all of them are torn up and a lot of them are, in fact, listed with an agent. I'm an agent in TN and I have been working with a buyer looking at foreclosures. We found a great one, which was listed with another agent and was on the MLS (BTW, we found it on RealtyTrac) and we closed on it last Friday. I don't try to push one property over another because it's not about me. I'm not going to be living there, my client is, and it's my job to advise and negotiate, not to see how much I can pad my pockets. However, there are a lot of foreclosures out there where the previous owners did a number on the home before vacating it, or the home was vandalized by people who saw the house was vacant. But there really are a lot of nice foreclosures out there and if you have a good RE agent negotiating on your behalf, you could come out way ahead of the bank. I actually got the bank to pay my buyers closing costs on top of getting a repair allowance and new appliances. Talk to a reputable RE agent. A good agent ALWAYS puts their clients best interests above their own everyday of the week.

Original Question

Does the US tax large amounts of money leaving the US?

Q. I would like to sell my US property and move back to my native country.

A. You have to pay any income tax due from the sale before you go.

Original Question

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