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tracking home cost basis

Jon FosterJon Foster Member ✭✭
edited September 2018 in
I have a home loan account and home asset account in quicken. I have not been using my home account to track cost basis over time, but I want to go back and enter my original cost basis and subsequent home improvements.  I tried to accomplish this 2 ways:
1) I go into my original home account to enter the cost basis and date of purchase - I cannot find the place to do this for some reason.  
2) I try to set up another home account to just start again - no big deal as I do not have any entries in my existing home account other than than an estimate of its current market value. But when I go through the wizard to set up the account, I get to the screen to attach this home account to my existing mortgage account, my mortgage account does not show up in the drop down.  
I am running quicken 2009 on Win7

Any ideas what I am doing wrong? Is it a bug or user error?
Thanks

Comments

  • UKRUKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    For (1): There are no separate fields in the account to record this information. Just create a transaction in the register. Actually, there should be one in there, called Opening Balance. This should reflect the date of your purchase and what you paid for it. To track your estimated value increases/decreases or to record improvements, just enter another transaction, e.g. Kitchen remodel, $25000 and categorize it as a "transfer to the same account", i.e., use the account's name as the category, e.g., [My Home on Elm Street], with the account name in [angle brackets].
    For (2): You cannot link an asset account with a loan account, if the loan is already linked to another asset account. You'd have to remove the link in the loan account first, so you can relink to the new asset account.
    IMHO ... no need for a new asset account. Just redo the transactions in the old asset account, properly backdated so you can see your growth in value over time when looking at historical reports and graphs.
  • Jon FosterJon Foster Member ✭✭
    edited October 2016
    UKR said:

    For (1): There are no separate fields in the account to record this information. Just create a transaction in the register. Actually, there should be one in there, called Opening Balance. This should reflect the date of your purchase and what you paid for it. To track your estimated value increases/decreases or to record improvements, just enter another transaction, e.g. Kitchen remodel, $25000 and categorize it as a "transfer to the same account", i.e., use the account's name as the category, e.g., [My Home on Elm Street], with the account name in [angle brackets].
    For (2): You cannot link an asset account with a loan account, if the loan is already linked to another asset account. You'd have to remove the link in the loan account first, so you can relink to the new asset account.
    IMHO ... no need for a new asset account. Just redo the transactions in the old asset account, properly backdated so you can see your growth in value over time when looking at historical reports and graphs.

    Thanks for the answer ukr, I have a follow-on. I am moving forward with option 1 - I added an opening balance transaction for the cost and date of my my home purchase, and am going back over my transactions to change them  to transfers to my Home account. In that way, it is adding to the balance ( aka cost basis).  So that seems to be as expected.  But how do I track the market value of my home?  Quicken seems to want to want to handle tthis by entering a "balance adjustment" transaction, but that does not make sense to me.  that just increase the balance (aka cost basis) in that account. So how do I track the market value of my home in contrast to the cost basis?
    Thanks
    Jon

    BTW - hard to tell in this UI where I add a follow-on question.  The UI does not seem to provide a mechanism for that, hence my "comment".
  • UKRUKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Entering a comment is, AFAIK, the only way you can post a response or follow-up to your own question.

    If you want to track the changes in the home's estimated value, enter those in the home asset account, e.g. 1/1/2011, Est. Home Value Change, +$10000.00 and categorize it as a transfer into your [Home asset account name here]. That should show nicely on your historical graphs and reports and not inflate your other budget categories.
  • q_lurkerq_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2018
    Although not a rigid limit, I look at your question as either/or -- you either carry your home asset 'at cost' or you carry it 'at value'.  Doing both is too much work, IMO.  

    I will also point out that your homes tax basis may be different than what money you have put into the home.  The new AC you installed or the new roof you put on 20 years ago may have been a valid cost-basis addition at the time.  Now as you are replacing the system once again, that prior expense from long ago is more accurately a cost-of-ownership expense.  (Consult your tax adviser, 'cuz I ain't one.)  That suggests a third category that may be of interest to some - tax-basis, market value, and 'what you put into it'.  

    The choice is a matter of what you want to see.  Note conceivably you could have a 'cost-of-asset' account and a separate appreciation/depreciation account such that the net of the two would be the market value.  For me, that is just too much work and too impractical.  Also, note how subjective the 'maket value' figure is.  Until you actually sell the property to a willing buyer and close the deal, you do not truly know the property's true market value.  

    HTH
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