Advice – Page 2 – CENTURY 21 Realty Partners

Are moving expenses tax deductible?

By Realty Partners|2017-03-13T15:54:53-05:00January 29th, 2013|Advice|

It’s okay to curse at heavy furniture, probably when doing your taxes too. Photo is Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Tara Hunt.

Moving can be a stressful and chaotic time, but when it is all over not only will you be comfortable in a new home, but you could also qualify for a nice tax deduction for your efforts. While you should of course talk to a Tax professional, if you are qualified, you may deduct the expenses of:

Packing and transporting household goods
Mileage for use of your own car (or gas and oil expenses)
Tolls and parking fees on the trip
Up to 30 days’ storage of household goods
Disconnecting and connecting utilities
Transportation and lodging for yourself and members of your household while traveling to the new home

Of course, not all moves are deductible. In order to deduct your moving expenses you have to meet two tests:

TIME – You must being working as a full-time employee within 13 weeks of your move, and you must work at least 39 weeks during the 12 months after your move. And it doesn’t matter wheter you were transferred by your employer or you took a brand new job.

DISTANCE – To meet this test, your new job has to be at least 50 miles further from your old home than your old job was. If you didn’t have a job before the move, your new job has to […]

Pets, don’t let them be the unexpected victim of your next move…

By Realty Partners|2017-03-13T15:54:53-05:00November 16th, 2012|Advice|

We should always remember the impact of our moves on the entire family, our animal friends included. Here is a handy infographic with great advice on moving with pets.

Location, location, phone reception?

By Realty Partners|2017-03-13T15:54:54-05:00October 8th, 2012|Advice|

Can you hear me now? Trying out reception before buying a new home could save you headaches later.

As professional Realtors and the SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER. agents in real estate, we at CENTURY21 Realty Partners depend on our cell phones. Many of our clients have come to depend on their phones as well, for staying connected with both work and family. When service is spotty, we often feel as if we are lost in the Stone Age or at least the 80’s. Yet despite how critical connectivity is to many of us, it is surprising how often this factor gets overlooked in a property search.

While it is wise to check how many bars your handset has during showings (particularly in studies and offices), a new website and Android app, OpenSignal, offers offers robust tools to identify the quality of reception. Part of what makes OpenSignal particularly innovative is that reception quality is voluntarily reported from each user to make a searchable composite map of phone reception. This is potentially more accurate than carrier maps since it comes from a neutral source, consumers themselves. OpenSignal also reports only what other users have actually experienced, not theoretically should experience. The other innovation is an open interface that allows other software developers to use that map data with their own products. As seen on the official CENTURY21 twitterfeed, some in the industry are wondering when these maps could show up as overlays […]