New Jersey's "exit tax" - It's not really a tax, after all, but you have to pay it

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

This is a good article from AskNJMoneyHelp about the so-called "exit tax" which is really not a tax but a way for the state to be sure you file your tax return after you have sold your real property and moved out of state.

As a #titleinsurance agent handling hundreds of closings this year, the subject of when this payment must be made is encountered by us on an almost daily basis.

Here's the full article:

Q. We own a commercial/professional condo in New Jersey and reside in Maryland. Is the property subject to the exit tax since we don’t file there?— Unsure

A. Let’s get things straight about the exit tax, a term that’s often misunderstood.

It’s not necessarily a tax.

“It is a required estimated tax payment to make sure a nonresident seller files a New Jersey tax return,” said Chadderdon O’Brien, a certified financial planner with RegentAtlantic in Morristown. “It is required because New Jersey is concerned that the seller may not file a New Jersey tax return and pay taxes if they are a nonresident or current resident that is leaving the state.”

When you sell a property in New Jersey as a nonresident, you are required to file the NJ GIT/REP-1 form (gross income tax form), O’Brien said.

New Jersey requires you to withhold the amount of either 8.97 percent (New Jerseys highest tax bracket) of the profit or 2 percent of the total selling price, whichever is higher, he said.This withholding requirement is the so-called exit tax.

O’Brien offered a few hypothetical examples to show how it works.Say you continue to rent your condo and do not sell, then the exit tax is not relevant. You just need to continue filing a nonresident tax return for your rental activities in New Jersey.

Or say you sell your property and have a taxable gain. Then you are required to make an estimated tax payment of the higher of 8.97 percent of the profit (capital gain) or 2 percent of the selling price.

When you file your New Jersey tax return, the actual capital gain tax that you owe will be deducted from your estimated tax payment and the rest will be refunded to you.

If instead you sell the property at a loss, or if there is no capital gain, then you must still make an estimated tax payment of 2 percent of the sale amount. In this case, you do not actually owe any tax, so you will get the entire 2 percent withholding back when you file your New Jersey nonresident tax return.

“As I mentioned above, New Jersey requires these estimated tax payments because it forces the seller to file a New Jersey tax return for that year,” O’Brien said. “The good news is that this is not an extra tax – it’s just a way for New Jersey to make sure that you pay any capital gain taxes that you might owe.”

Your specific situation will dictate your required estimated tax payment and how much you receive back in the form of a tax refund. As always, there are exceptions and caveats to the exit tax, so be sure to consult with a tax professional with any questions about your specific situation.

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

Or, you can ask us!

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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Closing costs and your home purchase

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

This cartoon from the strip Non-Sequitur by Wiley caused me to laugh out loud because it's true.

But when you are a #homebuyer or if you are refinancing your mortgage, closing costs can land like a rock on your head.

In #NewJersey, what kind of #closingcosts can you expect?  In A - Z order-

Application Fee

Appraisal

Attorney Fee

Credit Report:

Escrow Deposit for Property Taxes & Mortgage Insurance

Flood Determination Search

Home Owners or Condo Association Transfer Fees

Homeowners’ Insurance

Origination Fee

Prepaid Interest

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)

Property Tax

Recording Fees

Survey Fee

Title Insurance

Transfer Taxes

Amounts, terms and conditions will vary depending on type  of transaction.
If you would like more information on closing costs, give us a call.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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6 Don’ts When Buying Your First Home - a homebuyer's primer

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

We can't help you when you're home shopping (well, maybe we can answer some questions about closing and settlement costs) but here's a list of some no-nos put together by Realty Times.

6 Don’ts When Buying Your First Home

(Realty Times, written by Jaymi Naciri)

These are exciting times. You've finally outgrown apartment life or living with your parents or sharing a place with waaaaayyyyy too many roommates, and you're ready to take the leap to homeownership. Now it's time to prepare. As you embark on this journey, beware of six important don'ts that could potentially derail your purchase.

 Don't think it's too early to get prequalified

 So, you're just going to go out "looking" at houses, you say? The time when you just expect to drive around a little and maybe visit an open house or two is obviously the time when you're going to fall in love with a house and want to make a move on it right away.

If you're not already prequalified with a lender, you may not have a chance at it. Competition is fierce across the country thanks to low inventory, and well-maintained, move-in ready homes do not sit if they're priced right. Talk to a lender now to make sure you can qualify - and learn your max budget - even if you just think you're casually looking (because that can change in a hurry!).

 Don't wait to the last minute to check credit

 As a continuation of the casually looking conversation…you want to check your credit the second you start thinking about buying a home. You never know what's going to be on there. Even if you've never missed a payment and have always done a good job of managing your outstanding debt, there could be errors on your report that you're unaware of or even something from many years ago that you didn't realize had been reported to a credit agency. Those little boo-boos, accurate or not, could be hurting your score, and a low score could keep you from getting a mortgage at all. Give yourself time to correct errors or fix blemishes; every tick upward can help you get a better rate and make your home more affordable.

 Don't forget about PMI when calculating your monthly expenses

The idea of putting as little down as possible on your new home is attractive, especially if you're not a natural saver. Today, that can mean just three percent of your purchase price, depending on the loan. For FHA loans, it's three and one-half percent. The problem with making the minimum down payment is that you then have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). 

 "PMI is a fee you pay on your mortgage until you owe 80 percent or less of what your home is worth. It's one reason why so many experts advise homebuyers make a 20 percent down payment; if you do, you avoid the evils of paying PMI," said Student Loan Hero. "PMI can cost between 0.3 percent and 1.15 percent of your loan annually. Depending on how much you borrow, that can mean thousands of dollars in extra costs until you can cancel your PMI." 

 Don't ignore the closing costs 

 Many of us micro-focus on the down payment when getting ready to buy our first home, but there is another important expense related to the purchase: The closing costs. Closing costs encompass a wide variety of fees, some or all of which may apply to you depending on where and what you're buying. They can include everything from the application fee and appraisal to the escrow fee to the home and pest inspection to the recording fees. You're looking at between two and five percent of your purchase price for closing fees, which can definitely add up. Many first-time buyers fail to factor this in when getting ready to purchase, and you don't want something that could amount to a few thousand dollars or more to come as an 11th-hour surprise. 

 Don't forget to factor in all the monthly expenses 

 New-home communities often quote a monthly payment that looks quite affordable and that can entice buyers who don't look more closely. That's because the payment is based on principal and interest only (Typically, you'll see a star next to the payment that tells you there's a disclaimer at the bottom of the page.). If you take a look at the small print, you'll see that there are also taxes and insurance to factor in. In some cases, there is also a homeowner's association fee. That monthly payment may not be looking so good anymore.

If you're buying your first home and coming from an apartment or other rental property, you may not have worked things like a gardener into your monthly budget. You'll also want to consider that if you're going up in square footage, there could an increase in your utilities, and you may be taking on payments for things like water and trash that were covered by your rental. It's best to have a true idea of what your monthly expenses are going to look like when buying your first home so you don't end up in over your head.

 Don't think you can go it alone

 Can you buy a home without an agent? Sure. Is it a good idea? Not usually. It could be that you are looking to buy a home that is for sale by owner. "In the industry, we call these types of sellers unrepresented," said The Balance. "Beware if you are trying to buy a home directly from an unrepresented seller. Odds are the seller won't know what she is doing or she might be taking advantage of you; either way, it could be problematic." 

 Unless you are a real estate attorney or are otherwise connected to the industry and aware of the laws, contract issues, etc., it's best for you to have representation, regardless of what type of home you are buying.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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How to Stop That Unruly Neighbor From Ruining Your Sale

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.

We love these columns from the Ask Real Estate section of the New York Times and have ourselves been featured in a column or two.

Here's a doozy:

How to Stop That Unruly Neighbor From Ruining Your Sale

Some neighbors are determined to make things difficult. But it’s in everyone’s interest to play nice.

By Ronda Kaysen

June 30, 2018

Q: I am writing to you on behalf of my lovely neighbors, who have been harassed for years by a neighbor who shares their driveway and often blocks them in. Now they have put their home up for sale and he’s at every open house intimidating potential buyers.  We live in a great community in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He’s the bad seed on the block. It seems the real estate agent can't handle him. What can my neighbors do?

A: The neighbor has a financial interest in behaving nicely while the house is on the market. If the house sells for less than it’s worth because of his theatrics, other homes in the immediate area (including his own) could see a drop in value.

The neighbor’s antics may backfire in another way, too. Someone will buy that house eventually, and he will have to live alongside that person (and continue to share the driveway). If he shows himself to be an unpleasant person, he may attract a buyer willing to take him on. “The person who ends up buying it is going to be somebody who can take it,” said Anna Shagalov, an associate broker with Halstead. Such a neighbor will be primed for confrontation, “and that is not in their best interests.”

The seller, or the real estate broker, should explain to the neighbor that his attitude is self-defeating. Be positive and try to enlist him in the sales effort. After all, a quick sale means a swift end to a long, unpleasant relationship. Ask him what can be done to appease him.

If the neighbor refuses to cooperate, the seller could make the open house a boisterous one, with distractions like balloons, a food truck and coffee. “Even if he’s ranting in the corner, he gets drowned out,” said John W. Harrison, an associate broker at CORE. “Really, all you’re trying to do is curate the purchaser’s first impression.”

Even if the neighbor is on his best behavior during the open house, the seller may still need to disclose past confrontations over the shared driveway, depending on what information the buyer requests in the contract.

For your next title order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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Why First Time Buyers Flock to the FHA Loan Program

We are the New Jersey title insurance agent that does it all for you. For your next commercial real estate transaction, house purchase, mortgage refinance, reverse mortgage, or home equity loan, contact us, Vested Land Services LLC. We can help.


While we don't offer mortgages, we know what they are and how they work.  40+ years' of experience is a great teacher.  Meanwhile, Realty Times looks at FHA loan programs and explains why they remain popular.

The FHA loan is one of the most-used mortgage programs for first time home buyers and there are some very good reasons why. The Federal Housing Administration introduced the FHA loan back in 1934 and since then has been the preferred choice for "first-timers."

FHA loans are one of the three "government-backed" mortgages. The other two are the VA and USDA programs. This government backing means should the loan ever go into default, the lender is compensated for all or part of the loss. With the FHA loan, the compensation to the lender is 100 percent of the loss. This compensation is in effect the result of an insurance policy and FHA loans carry two such policies.

There is an upfront policy that is rolled into the final loan amount and is not paid for out of pocket. The upfront policy is currently 1.75% of the base loan amount. The other policy is an annual one that is paid in monthly installments.

Today, for most FHA loans, the premium is 0.80 percent of the outstanding loan balance.

It is for this reason that lenders can relax their lending guidelines somewhat due to these two policies. As long as the lender followed the proper FHA guidelines when approving the loan, the guarantee is in place. Note, the FHA does not physically approve any mortgage. Instead, approved lenders do. Instead of the FHA being a mortgage program, it really acts more like an insurance policy.

The FHA does, however, prescribe a minimum credit score of 500 yet you'll be hard-pressed to find a lender who will approve an FHA loan with such a low score. In certain instances, lenders can approve an application with a 580 score while others ask for a score to be 600 or even higher. Individual lenders can set their own minimums.

Another reason why first-timers like the FHA loan is probably the most important one. The minimum down payment for an FHA loan is just 3.5% of the sales price. This makes it easier for first-time buyers to save up enough money for a down payment and accompanying closing costs. Conventional low down payment loan programs, on the other hand, make it harder to qualify by increasing rates for low down payment loans.

And speaking of money, FHA loans are a bit more lenient when it comes to receiving a financial gift. Buyers can receive a financial gift for all or part of the funds needed to close as long as the funds are coming from a family member or qualified non-profit agency.

This article and others written by real estate expert David Reed can be read on-line here.

For your next New Jersey title insurance order or

if you have questions about what you see here, contact

Stephen M. Flatow, Esq.

Vested Land Services LLC

165 Passaic Avenue, Suite 101

Fairfield, NJ 07004

Tel 973-808-6130 - Fax 973-227-0645

E-mail sflatow@vested.com

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