Clarification, Incremental
With my house scenario I always imagined that I would move all or most of the equity I get out of the sale of my house and apply it to the new house, for two reasons. First I want to minimize the size of my mortgage since I am edging towards retirement. Second my thought was anything I applied towards the purchase of a new home would be exempt from capital gains taxes. Yesterday I got clarification on that from my accountant.
The maximum that can be exempt from capital gains on the sale of a home is 250K, period. When my accountant first told me that I was disappointed but then she gave me more information. She said that you can deduct the cost of any major improvements you made to the property while you owned it. So things like the pool, the roof, the windows and the solar system can all come off the top so in the end my tax exposure should not be too bad. It also means the scenarios I was thinking about where I need to apply every penny of equity to “recast” my mortgage once I am allowed to (150 days after closing), was not really valid.
Instead I will be able to set aside money for whatever improvements I want to do first without worrying about tax ramifications. I was thinking I should put all the equity on the new mortgage and then pull out a HELOC to cover the renovations. This will be a much simpler course to follow.
Yesterday at lunch I played singles pickleball which I was hesitant to do. I was hesitant because I had plans to play my second week of volleyball last night. Pickleball, especially the singles variety can be pretty punishing on my knees with all the stop and go that is involved. I tried to not go all out while playing. My knees were a bit sore but not debilitating. When I got home I popped two more Advil grabbed my gear and headed to the sand courts at Fleischman Park.
I played 4’s and then 3’s for the full two hours. I would say I played slightly better than last week which is all I can hope for at this point, incremental improvement. I had more decent plays but am still struggling for consistency in areas like bumping and setting. One thing surprisingly that I am not struggling with is serving. In two weeks of play I have not hit a single serve out or into the net. I actually am now serving confidently and had multiple games where I ran 5,6,or 7 points in a row on my serve which felt good.
The other good news is despite playing pickleball at lunch my body seemed to hold up ok. Yep I am sore today but it isn’t the “shit I tore something” sort of pain. It’s the type of soreness that should become less and less prevalent if I keep committing to play weekly. As of now that is my intent. Anything that gets me out into the world and engaging with people in a positive manner is good for me.
Today I work a half day as I need to go run home and grab Elsa. They are doing a building inspection of my place, just like I had done to the place I am buying. They are usually pretty detailed in the inspection so it will be interesting to see what they come up with. When I got a quote to address the things the inspection mentioned on the house I am buying of 4K I requested the buyers offer that credit off the price of the house. They refused which meant I could back out of the sale if I wanted to. (I didn’t) I would probably have done the same thing if I was in their position.