Avoid tax bite in saving brother's house

Q: My brother bought his home about 15 years ago. He holds title only in his name, as a single man. He lost his job a couple of years...

Homeowner might get tax relief from phantom income

Q: We lost my father last year and are taking his name off of the mortgage loan and adding my name. Our mother was granted a modified...

How to raise credit scores: Five tips

The higher your credit scores, the better shot you have of getting a loan or credit card application approved. Improving your credit...

• Liz Weston: Don't wait to start saving for retirement

Consumers to get easier access to free credit scores

Deflecting illegal job questions

Q. What should I do about illegal questions in a job interview? If I say the question is illegal, I'm afraid they'll think I'm a...

Seeking a smoke-free solution

Q: I know you usually deal with homeowner issues, but I hope you can at least give me an idea as to the feasibility of my proposal. I...

The realities of unloading a time share

Q: I recently read your suggestions on how to get rid of a time share. You suggested attempting to give your time share back to the...

Putting brakes on foreclosure

Q: I have been working with my bank on a loan modification, but just received a notice of foreclosure. I contacted the lawyer who is...

Adding children on title raises tax questions

Q: After my dad died last year, my mom sold their house. During the title search, she was surprised to learn she didn't even own the...

Will flex fuel save you money?

Spikes in gas prices often turn attention toward alternative fuels. Ethanol alcohol, in the form of E85, is occasionally in the news due...

• Car stats: How numbers lie

Reverse mortgage a tricky way to pull money from home

Reverse mortgages allow people 62 and older to borrow against their home equity. Like marriage, the experts say, these are arrangements...

• Mary Ellen Podmolik: A retreat from reverse mortgages

Mortgage rates hold steady at 4.5%

Mortgage rates changed little this week, with the 30-year fixed loan steady at 4.5% in one widely watched survey despite the imminent end of...

Board ignores majority vote, approves satellite dish

Q: We homeowners are having quite a problem with our board. A few weeks ago, all homeowners got a letter asking for us to vote "yes" or...

Generosity toward kin can be taxing

Q: I am retired and helping my son buy his first home. My credit is good, but his is not, so the mortgage is in my name. We found a fixer-...

Buyer finds creaky house unsettling

Q. I bought a home in April 2009. The house is relatively new, built in 1995. I purchased the home with an FHA loan, as a short sale. My...

Joint tenants should redraw title for proper inheritance

QMy parents (now in their 80s) own a fourplex with my brother and his wife as joint tenants with right of survivorship. They agreed to a 50/...

Reverse mortgage puts risk on lender if home value sinks

Q: About two years ago I got a reverse mortgage on my house. After all upfront expenses, I got a lump-sum payout of $98,000, which I used...

Live-in mate could lose shared property in estate battle

Q. My mother and her boyfriend lived together for 18 years. He owned the house by himself. He has two surviving adult children. He always...

Weighing risks, rewards of adjustable-rate mortgages

Fixed mortgage rates remain below 5 percent, and these days fewer homebuyers seem to be opting for adjustable-rate loans.

• Mortgage options

Association nails homeowner with repair bill

Q. We live in a town house. Many of the outdoor structures, fences, etc., outside many of the houses that I've seen are not in compliance...

Determining the value of inherited house

Q. Where can a person find the value of a home on a particular date? My last surviving parent passed away on Sept. 29, 2005, and my...

Laws vary in dealing with neighbor's tree branches

Q. My neighbor has a Bradford pear tree that is probably about 15 years old. The other night during the heavy wind a branch of the tree...

Survey reveals consumer confusion on mortgages

A sizable number of American consumers appear to be clueless about home loans, judging by the responses to a survey by the Mortgage...

• The decision to buy

Buyer finds pitfalls in seller's financing arrangement

Q. I purchased a condo in January 2009 and was able to get a second mortgage through the sellers to help me purchase. Dealing with the...

Gift tax keeps on giving until 2012

Q. In a recent column, you indicated that a giftor's lifetime tax exemption is $1 million. However, after searching this out, I believe that...

Property owner divided on how to deal with fence

Q. I am a 78-year-old single woman living alone. Some weeks ago, my next-door neighbor fenced in his backyard with Gothic picket fencing....

Quitclaim could be a major misstep

Q My dad passed away in 2009, and yet his name is still on the title to my parents' property as well as a mortgage and home equity line of...

When a mortgage puts buyer at a disadvantage

For homebuyers who need to finance their purchase using a mortgage, a cash buyer can be their worst enemy.

• Money at their fingertips

Beware of timeshare maintenance fees

Q. My husband and I bought a time share years ago, and over time we upgraded and then converted to the point system. In that time, the...

Pay state fee to get loan off records

Q. I own a manufactured home and recently paid off my chattel loan. However, to clear the lien, our secretary of state requires that I pay...

How to polish your credit score

Sherelle Villacorta had a good credit score, but like many people she wanted a higher score.

• Deciding what and where to buy

How to drive the hardest car bargain

Most new-car shoppers know that if they pay invoice price for a vehicle, they're getting a bargain. But does that mean the dealer makes no...

IRS tax guide should be on every reader's top 10 list

Q. I was wondering if you could list your top five to 10 real estate-related books.

Prices are low! Mortgages cheap! But you can't get one

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Yep, mortgage interest rates are low, but there's a catch: It doesn't matter how cheap rates are if you can't get a...

• Types of homes (single family, condos, townhomes, etc.)

HUD drops harsh rule on reverse mortgages

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has thrown out a rule it put in effect in 2008 for reverse mortgages that was causing grief...

• New reverse mortgage opens options for seniors

When the mortgage market goes private

In a rare instance of like-mindedness across the political spectrum, most everyone agrees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the infamous...

Job hunting? Make your expenses count

When you're out of work, the last thing you need to do is waste money.

Search for real estate document likely will reach dead end

Q. I seem to have misplaced my HUD-1 form when we bought our house back in 1972. What can I do to obtain a copy and where?

Obama administration officials' personal finances 'more or less appropriate,' investing experts say

Obama administration officials are trying to steer the nation out of its biggest financial crisis in decades.

Is lender being upfront about fee?

Q. On July 30, I had settlement on the purchase of my first home. It was an FHA mortgage and the mortgage insurance premium (MIP) was...

Tenants refuse to pay new owners of foreclosure property

Q. We purchased a foreclosure property. The tenants have not paid rent for the past 18 months while the bank was the owner. The tenants...

THE JOURNEY

Janet Kidd Stewart if Your Money columnis. Have a retirement question? Write to yourmoney@tribune.com, or via mail at Your Money,...

• Obama backs off pledge to end federal income taxes for retirees making $50,000 or less

GAIL MARKJARVIS

Gail MarkJarvis is a financial columnist at the Chicago Tribune. E-mail her at gmarksjarvis@tribune.com.

Surviving layoffs may mean new job responsibilities

Congratulations--you dodged layoffs, at least this time around. So why is the boss at your elbow wanting to talk? Because the job you've...