Previously owned home papers

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
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moneywise3
Posts: 576
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:54 pm

Previously owned home papers

Post by moneywise3 »

Is there a reason to keep records of a home I used own? I bought the home in 2006 and sold in 2011.
BYUvol
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:06 pm
Location: KY

Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by BYUvol »

The only ones I would keep are the satisfaction or release (depending on state) that were recorded indicating you are no longer responsible for the mortgage payments and the deed to indicate you are no longer responsible for taxes or liability concerns.

You could safely trash those after a few years, but could be potentially useful in the next year or so if you are unlucky.
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Sheepdog
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Location: Indiana, retired 1998 at age 65

Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by Sheepdog »

If they are involved with tax returns, I believe you should keep them as documentation for at least the past 5 years of returns.
I have kept all of my basic house purchase and sales just for personal history purposes. (6 houses takes only a small folder.)
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
JerseyBoy
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Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:58 pm

Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by JerseyBoy »

Hi! I just got finished cleaning out my old home papers. After doing some research on the Internet, I decided to save the following information: any old IRS form's 2119 that established the cost bases of my previous and current homes; receipts for any major improvements that have been made to my current home (see IRS publication 530 for what is considered a major improvement); confirmations that my old mortgages were paid off in their entirety; and the HUD closing statements for any previous home sales/purchases/refinances. This should satisfy any and all recordkeeping requirements and allow you to trash quite a bit of paper.
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zaplunken
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Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by zaplunken »

Can I ask a question too? I sold a rental house in Florida in 1990 or 1991. I sold a home we lived in in Connecticut in 1999. Based upon the age of these sales can I safely destroy all the papers associated with both houses? It seems unnecessary to still be storing these today but then I have IRS returns that date back to the 1970's and I know I can destroy them after is it 7 years?

TIA!
Sidney
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Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by Sidney »

I keep settlement docs and any mortgage release docs. They aren't that thick. I usually scan this stuff and then file the paper copy.

The only other doc I kept was a few papers on one house where we had an underground oil tank removed and remediated. I kept this in case there are any environmental issues pending. Those can rear up long after you sell the property.
I always wanted to be a procrastinator.
Curlyq
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Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:26 pm

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Post by Curlyq »

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Last edited by Curlyq on Thu Oct 18, 2018 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Topic Author
moneywise3
Posts: 576
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:54 pm

Re: Previously owned home papers

Post by moneywise3 »

Thanks for the responses
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