OK. so i think you have focused me toward concentrating on costs that are unique to the estate owning the condo rather than if it were a normal sale by the owner prior to becoming deceased. Is that about right?
Obviously I am showing my ignorance, but please permit me this question:
I always thought, at least in a normal, non-estate, home sale situation regarding capital gain taxes and such, that near-term costs in preparing a home for sale were (directly, not 'miscellaneously') deductible. I assume that a home improvement added between the time an appraiser valued the property and when it is sold, would increase the "cost basis" and therefore would be, in effect, deductible under (A). Is that correct? But are you, in essence, saying that repair and other costs to maximize value, incurred after the appraiser did its on-site valuation, are not deductible? Yet, if the repairs were not done and the buyer was given a credit for them, that would clearly impact the loss, right? If so, would the advice implied by that seeming contradiction be to plan to give credits in escrow rather than paying contractors to do the fixes before the home is put up for sale?
Thanks much!
