Ever buy a SpongeBob or Patrick costume for your kids! Yes, we did along many other things. Ever sold miscellaneous stuff such as refrigerator, dish washer, etc.? Yes, we did that as well. Ok, now that you know some of our tightwad buying and spending habits, let’s take a look at what would generate a tax event with regard to eBay transactions. Well, first, buying a Donald Trump bobblehead doll with bad hair does not qualify as a taxable transaction at least not for the buyer. Now, it may qualify you as a somewhat kooky but that’s another story.

This week’s carnival is hosted by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity and has included a collection of investing insights covering both stock market and real estate investing. I’ve listed what I see as the most insightful posts to the carnival of investing.

Even with the explosion of websites ever since Al Gore invested the internet, it seems that I continually checkout the same websites. For this reason, I enjoy getting insights from others as to their favorites and also enjoy providing some of my frequent stops on the web.

Q. – You indicate that interest-only loans are financial prison. If that is the case, how can someone buy that dream house that is a financial stretch and not go the interest-only route?

Get the picture! You walk to your mailbox. Get that nice envelope from your local tax assessor. Open it and then out comes the unprintable $@*&% as you see your property tax assessment.

Consider the owner of a vacation home who desires to sell the property but of course does not want to get hit with the capital gains tax. Is a 1031 exchange possible? Yes, but it depends. Depends on what?

Your home – An investment, asset, retirement vehicle, black hole for money, or all of the above? Actually, I believe that the answer is some place in between.

Patience is a virtue! Begin with an exit strategy! Politicians want pork spending money! How true, how true, these all relate to aspects of real estate investments. Let’s just jump into these statements with an example using the provisions of IRC Sections 1031 and 121.

Taxing new homes at approximately 23% and eliminating the income tax along with the mortgage interest deduction (MID)! Surely, the FairTax puts homeowners and prospective buyers at a disadvantage. Well, think again.

Admittedly, I’m a numbers guy and not a global markets, big picture tread guru. Accordingly, I try to seek out those who have their hand on pulse, in this case - real estate trends. I’ll approach this from both an overall U.S. trend down to a more local trend.