7 Year-End Home Sale Questions To Ask Before December 31

 Quick Facts Before December 31

• The tax year follows a closing that can actually happen. December funding and January funding are different returns. The contract date doesn’t settle it.
• The exclusion is for a main home. It has ownership and use tests. Read IRS Topic 701 for the dollar limits and let your CPA apply them.
• A county median isn’t your net sheet. The latest realMLS county medians are in our monthly Jacksonville market update. That figure isn’t your proceeds, and it isn’t a December price.
• Homestead looks at January 1. It’s based on ownership and residency that day, filed with the county property appraiser. The standard deadline is March 1.
• Receipts aren’t the same as gain. Your CPA sorts out basis. The title company sorts out the wire.
• Orders can force the year. You’ll still want to read the exclusion tests.

A good first step: jot down the closing date you want, the title company’s last funding day, and the dates you lived in the home or rented it out.

 Which Tax Year Does the Closing Land In

Four different dates tend to get treated as one: the day you signed, the date on the closing disclosure, the day the lender funds, and the day the deed is recorded. A December amendment that funds in January isn’t a December closing.

Confirm the cutoff. Ask the title company for its last funding time before the holiday shutdown, what happens if a wire misses, and whether recording is open. A date they can’t meet isn’t your tax year.

Get it in writing. Put the date in the contract or a signed amendment, not a verbal promise. If a repair, an insurance binder or a lender condition is going to miss the holidays, January may be the honest date.

Ask your CPA what a slip would cost. Tell them whether you need this year’s return or next year’s. If escrow pays out after New Year’s, or part of the price comes later, point that out. Don’t assume the whole sale lands where you hoped.

Florida has no state personal income tax, but the federal return still applies. Topic 701 says that if you receive Form 1099-S, you report the sale even when the gain can be excluded. Ask the closer which year they’ll print on it.

Handing over keys isn’t the same as recording a deed. Note any early possession or post-closing stay next to the closing date. A buyer’s rate lock can push the calendar, but it doesn’t choose your tax year. If the lock is the only reason to rush, weigh what that rush costs you before giving up the year to save it.

 What the Main-Home Exclusion Actually Asks

The exclusion applies to a main home, and it has an ownership test and a use test. Both are explained on IRS Topic 701. If someone quotes you a round number, open that page and check it yourself. Don’t file based on the quote.

Confirm the years it was your main home. A stretch as a rental, months sitting empty during a tour, or time a spouse stayed while you were underway can land in different places on the tests. Write down move-in, move-out, any lease, and any period orders had you somewhere else.

Don’t go from memory. Topic 701 discusses an election that can suspend the test period for qualified official extended duty. Your CPA matches that guidance to your orders. Don’t assume a PCS either saves you or knocks you out.

Mention any earlier excluded sale. The IRS page describes a lookback that can block this exclusion, so tell your CPA the year if you’ve excluded gain before. If you file jointly, ask how the use test applies to each spouse.

Send your CPA dates, not a conclusion. And if the house is already a rental, say that first. It’s a different file than a house you still live in.

 Repairs, Basis, and the Net Sheet

Buyers will ask for a new roof, a credit or fresh paint. Your gain starts with what you paid, plus the basis items your CPA accepts, minus what reduces the amount you realize. That’s not the same thing as the seller net sheet, so keep the two separate.

Gather the paperwork. Your purchase closing disclosure. Invoices for an addition, a roof or a replaced system. If an invoice is gone, just say so. Don’t rebuild it from memory.

A seller credit isn’t a contractor invoice. The credit reduces what the buyer pays you. The invoice is money you already spent. Your CPA tells you which one changes gain. The title company tells you which one changes the wire.

Match the net sheet to this contract. Price, payoff, commission, concessions and the tax proration. If repairs are still open, treat the sheet as a draft.

A county median is one county figure for one month. It isn’t your street, and it isn’t December. We price from the last 90 days for homes like yours. Our seller net sheet starts the numbers conversation; it isn’t a tax calculator. And paint for listing photos isn’t automatically basis, so ask before you spend money you’re hoping to add back.

 Prorations, Property Tax, and Homestead

The property-tax line on your closing statement splits the local bill by days of ownership. It isn’t federal gain, and it isn’t next year’s homestead.

Check the bill. If this year’s tax bill isn’t out yet, the proration is often an estimate. Ask what happens when the real bill arrives. If the contract and the draft statement disagree, get that fixed before you sign.

January 1 is the homestead test. It’s based on ownership and residency that day, filed with the county property appraiser. Florida law (section 196.011) sets the timely deadline at March 1 in every county, and a weekend can move the office date. For the 2027 tax roll, that’s Monday, March 1, 2027. Duval’s property appraiser says late filing, for extenuating circumstances and in person, runs until the 25th day after the August tax notices are mailed, usually early September. Clay, St. Johns and Nassau each have their own offices. Our Florida homestead exemption guide covers each one.

Amendment 3 is on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. As written in the Division of Elections ballot summary, it would raise the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, effective Jan. 1, 2027. People who are not Florida residents on Dec. 31, 2026 would get the existing exemption until their fifth year of exemption. It needs 60 percent of the vote to pass. Check the result with your county property appraiser before you count on any number for 2027.

If you close in late December, you won’t be the January 1 owner. A closing in the first days of January may leave you as that owner. Ask the appraiser’s office which year you fall in.

Renting the house out, or buying your next one, changes the filing. Florida generally treats renting out a homestead as abandoning it, so most owners should expect to lose the exemption. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces are an exception under section 196.061 of the Florida Statutes, so if you’re serving, ask the appraiser how it applies to you. A new Florida home doesn’t inherit the exemption on its own. Porting a Save Our Homes difference is a separate application, and the portable amount should come from the appraiser, not an estimate. The constitutional limit on annual increases is the lower of 3 percent or the CPI change. Confirm it on the appraiser’s site.

The Florida Department of Revenue exemptions page is a good overview, and the homestead guide we linked above walks through the questions. Neither one replaces the appraiser’s answer. If you have a VA disability rating, our Florida disabled veteran property tax exemption guide covers the exemptions that can apply on top of homestead.

 A Holiday Showing Calendar vs a January List Date

When to show the house and which tax year you close in are two different decisions. If you’re weighing the month, read should you sell during the holidays first. If photos and the punch list are still open, start with the fall selling moves.

Plan the showing weeks. Note the days you’ll be away, the days the house will be dark, and how the lockbox works without you. School breaks fill the empty hours. It’s fine to block off days you won’t actually show.

A January launch can’t close in December. If you need this tax year, listing after New Year’s won’t get you there. If you need a finished house, January can be the honest choice, just know other sellers who waited will list then too. Neither option fixes a price that ignores the last 90 days for homes like yours.

Check on the vendors. If the appraiser, insurer, repair crew or closer is out at the end of December, the date is just a wish. Holiday lights don’t change basis. And if the work won’t be done until February, don’t list now just to get ahead.

If your closing calendar and your net sheet seem to be fighting each other, talk it through with our team before you lock a date.

 PCS Orders and the December 31 Clock

Put your report date, detach date and household-goods window right beside the closing date. Waiting until Christmas week to deal with a conflict won’t create a funding slot.

Read what your orders require. Some households have to leave. Some can leave one spouse behind to close. Some are selling because the next tour won’t carry a second house payment. Our sell, rent or hold guide for PCS orders walks through those choices. This post sticks to the sale, and our guide to selling during a PCS covers the rest of the seller side.

The exclusion isn’t automatic. Topic 701 covers qualified official extended duty and a suspension of the test period, along with the ordinary ownership and use tests. Your CPA applies them, so bring your orders.

Buyers inbound to Naval Station Mayport are asked to check in with the Housing Office before making off-base commitments. That doesn’t set your tax year, but it can slow down a buyer who skipped the call. Any wait times should come from the housing office, not a guess.

Sellers near NAS Jacksonville and Mayport work from the same year-end closing calendar. If you’re buying at your next duty station, that’s a separate lender file, so don’t ask this closing date to solve that house too. Decide now that any amendment pushing the date across December 31 gets a fresh look from your CPA before you sign.

 What to Hand Your CPA This Week

Send one folder this week, not the night before closing. In early December you can still keep this year or move to January.

• Contract and amendments. Circle the closing date, any rent-back and any seller credit.
• Draft net sheet. Mark it as a draft while the payoff or repairs are still moving.
• Purchase file and invoices. Note it if a major invoice is missing.
• Where you lived. Dates owned, occupied, rented, empty or away on orders. Any prior excluded sale. Who was on title.
• Homestead. Your county, January 1 ownership, and whether the next house is in Florida.
• Form 1099-S. Whether the closer will issue it, and for which year.

You can leave out county medians and stories about what a friend excluded.

Ask your CPA which date controls the year, whether the main-home tests look met, and whether January changes the answer. Ask the closer for the last funding cutoff, whether the proration is an estimate, and what’s still open. Each one answers a different set of questions, so send each set to the right person.

 Pick the Closing Year on Purpose

Write down the last day the title company will close this year, and the first January date when the appraiser, lender and closer can all work. If you can’t name those days yet, you have a month, not a date.

Next to each date, note the problem it solves: tax year, January 1 homestead, a buyer’s rate lock, a report date, or nothing. If the answer is nothing, the calendar is choosing for you.

Stick to one plan. If December misses the cutoff, ask what January changes. If January misses your orders, be clear about what the buyer still needs from you in December.

Watch for a quiet move across New Year’s. That amendment changes the tax year and can change who owns the house on January 1. Send it to your CPA before you sign.

Our PCS seller checklist covers photos, price and closing day. This post is about the tax year. The exclusion amount lives on Topic 701, homestead lives with the county, and the wire lives on the closing disclosure. If those three don’t line up with your date, change the date before December 31 does it for you.

We’re happy to sit down with you, map out the December and January dates, and pull the latest numbers for your street before you decide. Start with our seller net sheet or give us a call.

Related reading

• Should you sell your Jacksonville home during the holidays
• 9 fall selling moves that help Jacksonville homes stand out
• Selling a home in the Jacksonville area
• Seller net sheet

Episode Transcript

A December closing and a January closing land in different tax years. And the day you accept an offer is not the day the sale is done. If you are selling a home in Duval, Clay, St. Johns, or Nassau this fall, the date your file can actually close is the one that counts. Pick it on purpose, or the holiday calendar will pick it for you. Today: the seven questions to ask before December thirty first, so the year your sale lands in is a decision, not an accident.

Welcome to The Jacksonville Real Estate Podcast. I am Mike, with Matt Strickland, broker-owner of Military Realty of Florida. Quick market bed before the questions: Nefar's September numbers put the six-county single-family median at three hundred ninety nine thousand dollars, and Freddie Mac's latest weekly survey, for the week ending October fifteenth, held the thirty year fixed average at seven point four zero percent. Now, the seven questions. This is education, not tax advice, and the last step of every answer is the same: take the file to your C P A.

Question one: which tax year does the closing actually land in? Four different dates tend to get treated as one: the day you signed, the date on the closing disclosure, the day the lender funds, and the day the deed is recorded. A December amendment that funds in January is not a December closing. So ask the title company for its last funding time before the holiday shutdown, what happens if a wire misses, and whether recording is open, and get the date in the contract or a signed amendment, not as a verbal promise. If a repair, an insurance binder, or a lender condition is going to miss the holidays, January may be the honest date. One more: if you receive a Form 1099-S, the I R S says you report the sale even when the gain can be excluded, so ask the closer which year they will print on it.

Question two: what does the main-home exclusion actually ask? It lives on I R S Topic 701, and it is two tests: ownership and use. Own the home and live in it as your main home for at least two of the five years before the sale, and up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars of gain can be excluded, five hundred thousand if you file jointly. If someone quotes you a round number, open Topic 701 and check it yourself. Then write down the real dates: move-in, move-out, any stretch as a rental, any months the house sat empty during a tour. Those stretches land in different places on the tests. Service members, listen closely: Topic 701 describes an election that can suspend the five-year test period for up to ten years of qualified official extended duty. Do not assume a P C S either saves you or knocks you out. And mention any earlier excluded sale, because a lookback can block this one. Send your C P A dates, not a conclusion.

Question three: how do repairs and credits hit the math? Buyers will ask for a new roof, a credit, or fresh paint, and a seller credit is not a contractor invoice. The credit reduces what the buyer pays you. The invoice is money you already spent. Your gain starts with what you paid, plus the basis items your C P A accepts. That is a different document from the seller net sheet, so keep the two separate: the net sheet is price, payoff, commission, concessions, and the tax proration for this contract, and while repairs are still open it is a draft. Gather the paperwork now: your purchase closing disclosure, invoices for an addition, a roof, a replaced system, and if an invoice is gone, say so instead of rebuilding it from memory. And a county median is not your net sheet. We price from the last ninety days for homes like yours.

Question four: what do prorations and homestead do to the dates? The property-tax line on your closing statement splits the bill by days of ownership; if this year's bill is not out yet, that proration is often an estimate, so ask what happens when the real bill arrives. Homestead is a separate clock: it turns on owning and living in the home on January first, filed with your county property appraiser, with the standard deadline March first, which for the twenty twenty seven tax roll is Monday, March first. Two watch items. Amendment 3 is on the November third ballot: as written, it would raise the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to one hundred fifty thousand dollars in twenty twenty seven and two hundred fifty thousand in twenty twenty eight, and it needs sixty percent to pass, so do not count on any of those numbers until the votes are in. And renting the house out generally abandons a Florida homestead, with an exception for members of the Armed Forces under Florida law, so ask the appraiser how it applies to you before you lease.

Question five: show through the holidays, or list in January? Those are two different decisions, and the calendar settles one of them: a January launch cannot close in December. If you need this tax year, listing after New Year's will not get you there. If you need a finished house, January can be the honest choice, knowing every seller who waited lists then too. Plan the showing weeks either way: the days you will be away, the days the house will be dark, and how the lockbox works without you. Check the vendors, too: if the appraiser, insurer, repair crew, or closer is out at the end of December, your date is a wish, not a plan.

Question six: what do your orders do to the clock? Put your report date, your detach date, and your household-goods window right beside the closing date. Some households have to leave; some can leave one spouse behind to close; some are selling because the next tour will not carry a second house payment. Whatever your version is, decide this now: any amendment that pushes your closing across December thirty first gets a fresh look from your C P A before you sign it. A quiet move across New Year's changes the tax year, and it can change who owns the house on January first and with it, the homestead picture.

Question seven: what do you hand your C P A this week? One folder, this week, not the night before closing. The contract and amendments, with the closing date, any rent-back, and any seller credit circled. The draft net sheet, marked as a draft. Your purchase file and invoices, with missing ones noted. Your living history: dates owned, occupied, rented, empty, or away on orders. Any prior excluded sale, and who was on title. And your homestead facts: your county, January first ownership, and whether the next house is in Florida. Then ask three things: which date controls the year, whether the main-home tests look met, and whether January changes the answer.

Pick the closing year on purpose. Write down the last day the title company will close this year and the first January date when the appraiser, lender, and closer can all work, and next to each date, write the problem it solves: tax year, January first homestead, a buyer's rate lock, a report date, or nothing. If the answer is nothing, the calendar is choosing for you. The full written guide, all seven questions with the sources, is Sunday's post at militaryrealtyflorida.com. If you want help mapping the December and January dates for your sale, call or text Matt Strickland at Military Realty of Florida, (904) 309-0609.

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For education only. This isn’t tax or legal advice. Tax rules, exemption amounts, deadlines and ballot results change. Confirm your situation with your CPA, the title company and your county property appraiser before you pick a closing date.