I appreciate your thoroughness. I was trying to keep my message simple without overwhelming details. From all of my research and everyone's input, I think I would be better off not doing anything with the property -tax wise. I'm not trying to be sneaky, I have researched quite a bit on the topic. ..Replies per your bullet points-
1/2. I have found information about how to list Bartered services. My son works in construction so his pay he earns as a carpenter would be very fair rate (FMV) for his Bartered rate. I have also several examples of similar properties for rent and have documented the similarities and differences to find a FMV for the home.
3. As I said I was trying to keep my message simple. This home is a single wide mobile home, originally purchased by my husband as new in 1997. It is already on family land but the land is in my mother-in-law's name. The land is not tied to the mobile home in the bank's eye, it has a title not a deed. The taxes are paid on the property as improved property by her. When a mobile is not tied to the land, taxes are separated. My husband has let various family members live in it once he moved out. The last family member moved out 5 years ago and left the home with repairs needed. There have been no deaths, no wills, no gifts. It has always been in his name. The repair is an actual repair by my research. The roof was original and had leaked for years, there were rotted walls, rotted floors, and actual holes in some of the roof/walls/floors. Animals were living in it. To me that falls under "unusable" and not an "improvement". We have pictures and documentation for all of this. Yes, we have improvements in new flooring, new cabinets, etc.
My question that I guess I didn't make clear is would it be more complicated/feasible to claim this as a "Rental" (It doesn't look like that will be a good idea) or as a 2nd property which I suppose it technically is. I haven't been able to find much information on 2nd property tax deductions. Since there's no mortgage and we personally do not pay the taxes on the property, it appears that avenue would not be an option either. Lesson learned I suppose.
