I'd start with craigs list too Linda. You said about 600 to get in running and then some body work. For the most part body work and paint cost more.... so if that damage is limited don't sell yourself short on the asking price. Be sure and repost your ad often too. Those lists load up fast and you will be many pages down in short order. If you decide to donate I know some community colleges and vo-tech schools will come and pic it up for you. Some even have a budget for buying cars/trucks for their classes. We had a family friend that was a instructer for this course at one of our vo-techs. I know you just outside of a major metro area so I'm thinking you will have no problem what ever you decide to do. David

I was looking for info on what it costs to build a shell and ran across this post. Figured I might as well lend a helping hand. There are a bunch of scenarios here. If you merely intend on building the home and then selling it, you would only recognize the $25,000 as a capital gain. However, you need to document all your expenses very well in arriving at the $100,000 in costs and be able to prove them should you get audited. Whether it is long term or short term capital gain depends on how long the house is held. Your $100,000 in expenses to build the house is your BASIS in the property. The cost of land is also added to BASIS. However, only the cost of the improvement can be depreciated. If you want to rent the property out, then you have to start talking about depreciation, passive activity loss limitations, depreciation recapture, etc. It gets a lot more complicated than I am willing to get into on here. As far as the 2 out of 5 years rule is concerned, Congress just changed this rule to prevent people with multiple rental properties from moving around every couple of years to shield $500,000 in capital gains for married couples. Again, talk to a CPA in your area about this. If you weren't all the way across the country from me, I would offer you my services. Good luck.

I would ask your subs if they charged you any sales tax on the materials they used in your home and if so if you could have that documented on your receipt from them. You need a receipt or invoice that shows what sales tax you are deducting in case you are ever audited. Even the numbers that I backed into on my example I gave above, I went to Lowes and Home Depot afterwards and had them pull up my receipts (one advantage to using a credit card) and print them off so that I would have them for backup in case the IRS ever came looking. States vary greatly on how they determine when sales tax is collected. Does Texas charge sales tax on the sale of a newly constructed home? If so, the builder would be exempt from paying sales tax on material that was used in the building of the home. Therefor your subs may not have charged you any and that is why it is not on their invoice. However, like I said, sales tax law varies greatly from state to state and I wouldn't want to give you advice there as I'm not a Texan. Maybe someone else here knows or you could research it on the internet or ask a local accountant. As far as the cost basis goes, any sales tax you deduct and any energy credits you take will reduce your cost basis. The $250,000/$500,000 exclusion only applies if you have lived in your home more than 2 years. If you sell before then and have a profit you will need to know your cost basis and pay tax on the gain. And after the two years are up if you are lucky enough to have that kind of a gain you will also need to be able to figure your cost basis. So in short just keep good records of all your costs and any tax deductions & credits that you do end up taking. I would still take the sales tax deduction as it is guaranteed benefit to you this year whereas the other is hypothetical and unpredictable and a dollar saved today is always worth more than a dollar saved in the future. The IRS allows a standard deduction for sales tax if you do not have your receipts for all normal daily purchases. Sales tax on construction costs are deductible above and beyond that standard deduction so it can amount to quite a bit. I'd say just ask your subs and see what they can come up with. They may not have charged you any sales tax. If they charged you tax they are responsible for reporting and paying that to the state so they would have records. If they paid sales tax on materials and didn't charge you any sales tax then you are probably out of luck. In theory, sales tax is typically charged to the end user but that isn't how it always works out. And some states charge sales tax on the sale of a home and others do not so if varies on who is considered the end user. Sorry for the long winded explanation. Hope it make sense.

Definitely give your tax accountant a call. You have many more issues than this to discuss with him/her. You need to have everything set up as efficiently and properly as possible so that at the end of the tax year, you hand him/her a workable stack of information. Your tax accountant isn't just there from Feb-April--he's there all year. I give mine a call anytime I have a question that pertains to what's going to be happening to my taxes. He's happy to offer advice, many times he doesn't even charge me. AND by asking ahead of time, you often have the option of setting things up in the most favorable way for you. There are legal ways to reduce your tax liability, but you need to be getting good advice, so you don't make costly mistakes. Please call your tax accountant a call--this is what they do. And if you don't have one--with going into this investment, now's the time to get one.