How should I record my home’s down payment and closing cost

LittleMasti · 6:57AM

I recently purchased a new home and manually added both my mortgage account and the real estate asset. I’m unsure how to properly record the down payment and closing costs so that my monthly mortgage amount doesn’t change when I enter the original and current mortgage balances. I also tried looking for previous guidance in the app’s help resources but couldn’t find a clear answer.

I’m using a Mac.

NotACPA · 10:00AM

The down payment is typically recorded as a transfer to the Asset/Home account. It's part of what you paid for the property.

re: closing costs You need to look over the closing statement and determine, on a line by line basis, which lines are part of the purchase price, which are tax deductions and which should be transfers to asset accounts (such as any Escrow items).

And by "original and current mortgage balances" does that mean that you sold a prior home and bought this one? Please clarify.

LittleMasti · 1:13PM

No, I did not sell any home.

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LittleMasti · 1:40PM

@NotACPA I found one of your old posts. Just following the steps.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20139988#Comment_20139988

jacobs · 1:45PM

@LittleMasti That's a post I wrote, not @NotACPA. But re-reading it all these years later, I think it still correctly lays out the options you have in tracking (or not) your home as an asset. The only thing which is out-of-date from that post is that Quicken Mac can now update a home's estimated value through integration with Zillow, a feature which was not available back in 2020.

So, the question is, what do you want to track in Quicken regarding your home? And which part are you having trouble in implementing?

NotACPA · 3:23PM

@LittleMasti I agree with almost all of @jacobs prior post … except the last sentence.

If you might be selling this home at any point in the future, I'd think that you'd want to keep track of the cost basis of this home so that when it's time to sell you'll know how much of the sale price is basis and how much is increase. That also means that if you make capital improvements to the property, you'll want to track those also.

Capital Gains taxes apply to home also, unless you get the "rollover" exemption by buying another home for more money. And, it's just a whole lot easier to track that basis through-out your ownership of the home than when you're trying to do your taxes after that sale.

Just as it's easier to track your yearly taxable income and expenses through-out the year rather than the night of April 14th.

How should I record my home’s down payment and closing cost

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