Would you keep the HGTV dream home if you won?
I would love to live in this house, but if I won, I’d have to sell it. The income and property taxes alone are astronomical!
My dream would be to sell the house, pay off all debts (student loans, cars) and buy a modest dream home. I’d donate some to charity, give my family some and I think that would still leave me enough to invest so my husband and I would never work again! Talk about a nice life!
Here’s how it would shake out (humor me):
2,000,000 prize
-20,000 property tax
= 1,800,000
-320,000 1x Fed income tax (rate of 16%)
=1,480,000
-140,000 1x State income tax (rate of 6%)
=1,340,000
-120,000 closing costs/title (6% of 1.8mil)
=1,220,000
-100,000 pay off all debt
=1,120,000
-120,000 (charity & family)
=1,000,000
-500,000 BUY MY DREAM HOME!!!
=500,000 balance to invest
That sounds like an awesome scenario to me!
The official rules allow for the home to be sold, in fact almost all past winners have done this.
http://contests.about.com/od/taxesfinances/a/hgtvdreamhomtax.htm