<p>If a student and his family live in the family home/farm, built by great-great-great grandparents back when the area was entirely farmland, what should they write down for Profile? They didn’t buy it and they don’t rent it. its original value was low even in late-19th century dollars (though high in spit and elbow grease ;p) but would make no sense today. As for its current value, what should they use to estimate it? Property tax? </p>
<p>Check Zillow - that’s what we used for a reasonable current estimate.</p>
<p>Property tax value used is usually a gross underestimate, our real house value is about 3.5 times our value listed on the property assessment by the town.</p>
<p>There is a place to list if your family owns a farm.</p>
<p>Technically, it is both the house and the land, not just the house.</p>
<p>Does not matter if they bought it or not, they inherited it. Someone there is a piece of paper that was a deed going from the deceased’s estate to the parents.</p>
<p>Thanks rhandco!
it’s not a farm (hasn’t been for a long time, just used to be a long time ago) - part of the land was sold off about 60 years ago. Now it’s just an old house near a suburb.
Will check about deeds.</p>
<p>Zillow is:
<a href=“http://www.zillow.com”>www.zillow.com</a></p>
<p>and you type in the address. If they don’t have an estimate for your house, you can try to find similar houses nearby.</p>
<p>You can at least get a laugh if you think it is way off from your estimate.</p>
<p>I know with older houses, the estimates can be kind of nutty. My dad would be lucky to get 300K for his house, but it is listed on Zillow at over 400K. Conversely, my cousin sold my grandparents’ old house, built before 1900, for over a million dollars, and the list price on Zillow is $500K. That is because it has an acre and they will subdivide into four lots and make a lot more than that on the new houses.</p>
<p>80% of what Zillow lists is probably a good estimate of what a house would really sell for. </p>
<p>We use the official assessment on our property taxes for the current value. Of course, in NYS, they assess at 100% of value. Maybe other areas don’t. </p>
<p>It’s the value of that house if you sell it. Check comparable listings, and see what other houses in the area are selling for. If the house has no mortgage, the entire value of the house must be listed on the Profile.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
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<p>They inherited a valuable asset. </p>
<p>Well, if they had to sell it, how much would they sell it for? </p>
<p>strictly speaking they haven’t inherited it, their parents did, they’re just living in it for free. (Parents are still alive - does it make a difference if they still live there, too?)
It’d be worth, based on Zillow, 250-300k. </p>
<h1>8 I think it does. Who owns the property?</h1>
<p>Theoretically the parents could leave the property to a charity or something right?</p>
<p>Would it ever make sense to have the house appraised? </p>
<p>If they don’t own the house, they would be considered renters…for a very low rent (free). If this house is NOT in their name at all, they would not put it on the financial aid forms, I believe.</p>
<p>Btw, the parents should probably look into what inheritance taxes are like where they are and whether buying the house from the grandparents at some point (after the kids are done college) would make sense.</p>
<p>Joe, stop spamming this forum with the same link all over the place.</p>
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<p>Very few states have an inheritance tax that applies to direct descendants. The federal estate tax exemption for 2014 is $5.34 million, and the minority of states that have an estate tax usually have a fairly high exemption. It would be unusual for the transfer of an inherited property to be taxed.</p>
<p>This is “living with family.” They don’t own it, they don’t know if they will inherit it from your grandparents, they probably don’t pay your grandparents any rent (but might be responsible for other household expenses, such as utilities?). It is not their asset. They should not report it as an asset.</p>
<p>They must have home insurance on it. Look for the number that uses.</p>
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<p>Land value can be a big part of real estate value. Insured value noted on a homeowner’s policy generally deals with the replacement cost of the dwelling/structures. This can be radically different than fair market value of the entire piece of property (structures and land).</p>
<p>The property was estimated worth $100,000 about 30 years ago.
The family live on the premises - they could be expelled anytime the grandparents choose to but they’re allowed to live there for free.</p>
<p>If the family doesn’t own the property, it should not be listed as THEIR asset. They are tenants.</p>