I want to negociat my house for one in other country?

Question

I want to trade in or exchange my house for one in my country for similar price. My ?: is this posible or there is more complicated or prohibited?

Answer 1

Why would you even consider doing this? You can't do a 1031 exchange to a foreign country, so no real tax advantage. All sorts of headaches in doing this, and I can't imagine how you would find someone willing to make the reverse exchange. May as well just sell the one house, then buy another in the foreign country.

One big problem that I can think of it if a problem comes up with just one of the sales, then what. You could sue I guess, but suing based on a problem that occurred in another country - good luck with that (II mean if I break the law in Canada, the USA won't put me in jail. They may send me to trial in Canada but they won't try me themselves).

I'd really advise againist this, you can run it by a lawyer but I can't believe they would think this is a good idea either.

Answer 2

It's perfectly legal under US law. In fact, there are even some favorable tax treatments in exchanging homes; it's called a Section 1031 Exchange and allows gain to be deferred that might otherwise be taxable. Without knowing what countries you're talking about it's not possible for anyone to say if you could do it or not.