I'd start with craigs list too Linda. You said about 600 to get in running and then some body work. For the most part body work and paint cost more.... so if that damage is limited don't sell yourself short on the asking price. Be sure and repost your ad often too. Those lists load up fast and you will be many pages down in short order. If you decide to donate I know some community colleges and vo-tech schools will come and pic it up for you. Some even have a budget for buying cars/trucks for their classes. We had a family friend that was a instructer for this course at one of our vo-techs. I know you just outside of a major metro area so I'm thinking you will have no problem what ever you decide to do. David

No, You can only deduct tuition and fees deduction or education credits for yourself, your spouse and people listed as dependents on your return. Your daughter can claim the credit or deduction even if you pay the expenses.

Mary, are you sure about that and how are they deductible? For example if I am selling a house for 700k and buying a house for 800k I do not have to worry about paying tax on the gain. Is this the situation or some other situation where it is actually deductible as some type of personal expense? Is the realtor commission deductible or only as part of the sale if I am not buying a more expensive house (or my profit is more than 500k for a married couple) Also what expenses, mortgage recording tax, which is payable to my local county or town, is this deductible? For whom and why, this is normally paid by buyer Title insurance (whether for bank or homeowners?) Prepaying any property tax would be New survery, normally paid by buyer, deductible if done by seller or only if not buying a more expensive house? Bank fees, bank attorney fees, points? Deductible? By whom and why Would love to know the answers without calling an accountant For more expensive houses, not starter homes, in the NE, anyone heard of seller paying closing costs? Also in NY there is a mansion tax for sales over 1 million (usually nothing near a mansion, more like a 4 bedroom colonial from 1960 with the original kitchen) so you never want to up the purchase price when you get near that number

I didn't want to bore everyone with all the details, but the only way to get this house will be an all cash offer. This is an off-market sale; the seller is a licensed Realtor in my Realtor's office and is in a difficult personal situation that requires her to sell fast and quietly. The seller is already in contract with another buyer. The buyer has missed his date to remove his financing contingency. The seller is going to give the buyer Notice to Perform as soon as we have a signed backup contract. The lender has told the seller that the buyer's loan will come through by the end of this month (3 weeks) but the seller can't wait that long. If we have a financing contingency, even a 15-day one which my mortgage broker says is possible, we won't give the seller enough incentive to sell to us. Instead, she will put her house on the MLS and have an all-cash buyer within 3 or 4 days. That's how hot the market is where I live. She seems to be willing to do this. We'd lose the sale or have to come up with a higher price due to the bidding war that's likely to occur. Just for background on this zipcode, there have been 3 houses on the MLS in our target area of 20 square blocks in the past 2 months. We bid on the first one and lost out to a higher bidder - there were 5 bids. The 2nd one we didn't bid on - it also had 5 bids. The 3rd one we didn't bid on - it had 2 bids. All 3 houses sold at 3-8.5% over asking. Since this house is a lower price than the one we bid on last month, we're confident that the loan won't be a problem. We were pre-approved for the higher loan, and my mortgage broker has been working through the process since then to make sure everything's in place for a fast turnaround on a new loan.