Buying & Selling
Home buying guides, seller strategies, closing costs, negotiations, first-time buyer tips, and the process of purchasing or selling property.
Latest in Buying & Selling
Fannie Mae sets standard rules from December 1 for an investment property bought within 45 days of the home being financed
Fannie Mae has written one set of rules for a borrower who bought another investment property within 45 days of the home being financed, and...
Fannie Mae now requires an appraiser using the UAD 3.6 form to find a home’s highest and best use is residential, effective immediately
Fannie Mae now requires an appraiser using the UAD 3.6 form to conclude that a property’s highest and best use, as improved or as proposed,...
Fannie Mae gave lenders a temporary exception to its November 2 appraisal-form mandate
Fannie Mae’s Lender Letter LL-2026-08, issued September 30, 2026, lets sellers that cannot meet the November 2 mandate for UAD 3.6 appraisal reporting request a...
Home buyers whose purchase was listed on an MLS have until October 27 to claim from a $120,334,500 commission settlement, and sellers are expressly excluded
Buyers of homes that were listed on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) have until October 27 to file a claim against a $120,334,500 commission settlement,...
Congress extended federal flood insurance through Dec. 11, so the program can keep writing and renewing policies past Sept. 30
A year ago, on Oct. 1, 2025, the National Flood Insurance Program stopped selling and renewing policies because Congress had let its authority lapse. The...
Reverse-mortgage heirs can deed the home to the lender instead of selling, HUD says
Heirs who inherit a house carrying a reverse mortgage they cannot repay have an exit that does not require finding a buyer. HUD’s guide for...
Heirs of a reverse-mortgage borrower get 30 days from the lender’s notice to act, and the clock can stretch up to six months, the CFPB says
Two federal pages give heirs of a reverse-mortgage borrower a 30-day deadline, but they start the clock at different moments. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...
Heirs can settle an underwater reverse mortgage by selling the home for at least 95% of its appraised value, HUD says
An underwater reverse mortgage does not have to end in foreclosure when heirs can find a buyer. HUD’s guide for people inheriting a Home Equity...
Almost anyone who bought a home through a real-estate agent can still claim part of a $120 million commission settlement, but the window closes October 27
A settlement worth $120.3 million is now open to almost anyone who bought a home listed on a multiple listing service anywhere in the United...
A homeowner can pocket up to $250,000 of home-sale profit tax-free, and a married couple up to $500,000
Selling a longtime family home can produce a six-figure profit, and the tax code lets most owners keep a large share of it without owing...
A widow or widower keeps the $500,000 home-sale tax exclusion for up to two years
The death of a spouse quietly resets the tax math on the family home, and the change can cost a survivor hundreds of thousands of...
Some states and counties offer down-payment help and closing-cost grants to older or first-time buyers
The cash needed to close on a home — a down payment plus thousands in closing costs — is the wall that stops many would-be...
Couples can shield up to $500,000 of home-sale profit from federal tax
A house bought decades ago is, for many retirees, their single largest untaxed gain — a property purchased for a fraction of today’s price and...
The home-sale tax break — $250,000 single, $500,000 for couples — hasn’t risen since 1997
The tax break that shields most home sellers from a capital-gains bill is showing its age. When a primary residence is sold, an owner can...
A home seller can exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 married, a limit frozen since 1997
When a homeowner sells a primary residence at a profit, the federal tax code lets a single seller shield up to $250,000 of that gain...
Homeowners can exclude up to $250,000 of home-sale profit, or $500,000 for couples
A homeowner who sells a primary residence can generally shield up to $250,000 of profit from federal capital-gains tax, and a married couple filing jointly...
Selling a home you’ve lived in can shield up to $250,000 in gains from tax, or $500,000 for a couple
A retiree who bought a home decades ago and sells it in today’s market can be sitting on a capital gain of several hundred thousand...
In a slower market a buyer can ask the seller to cover closing costs, often worth thousands
Homebuyers shopping in markets where listings sit longer and competition cools are finding a concrete advantage at the negotiating table: they can ask sellers to...
The typical first-time homebuyer is now a record 40 years old — and first-timers make up just one in five buyers, the smallest share ever recorded
Not long ago, buying a first home was a milestone most Americans hit before their mid-30s. According to the latest data from the National Association...
Re/Max agrees to be sold to The Real Brokerage in a $550M deal
RE/MAX Holdings (NYSE: RMAX), the Denver-founded brokerage whose red, white, and blue hot-air balloon has been a fixture of American real estate since 1973, has...