[quote=flu] Attempting to lower one’s assessed values to tricks and games as to what Romney has done is purely legal and no different than anyone else trying to lower his/her tax burden. People who rail against Romney doing this better not have submitted his/her or her own reassessment request and/or tried to lower the assessed value by playing games at closing with the closing cost…Otherwise that’s a huge double standard there and an immediate loss of credibility imho.
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Realtors (and others) will tell you all day long that the sellers are the ones paying the commissions. If the *sellers* are the ones paying the commission, then the commission should not be part of the price, right? If the commission IS included in the price, then it is the buyer who is paying the commission, and sellers should not be able to deduct these “selling expenses” from the gains on the sale of a property.
If the buyer pays commissions out-of-pocket, why should they be included in the sales price? If the buyer is the one paying the commissions, why can’t they add the costs to their cost basis when they sell? Why should buyers pay **property** taxes on **transaction** costs?
