It always amuses me the differences between the UK and the USA

Estate Agent - Realtor
Apartments = Flats
Condominium = Commonhold
Closing costs = Solicitors fees and Land registry fees

Closing costs typically also include a few other things: the Realtor's commission, title insurance, prorated property tax, inspection fees, and a home warranty.

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Are tax records in the public domain in the States?

I feel that the current value of my home is a private matter and not one I would want to discuss publicly. However the area that I live in is very much a hybrid one, ranging from Council estates to gated communities with 5 bedroom detached at £5 mil. Yes it is very much us and them.

As far as Jefferson County, which includes the city of Louisville, Kentucky, the law says these records are indeed public domain.

Doesn't look like Google has put the plot map as a layer there, but it looks like the property has a couple of detached guest houses, a couple lakes, at least a couple holes of private golf course ...

VAT is a tax on sales (as well as many other transactions) - you have GST, which is a fair approximation to it.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

In the US we don't have a value added or sale tax on real estate.
However, we do have a capital gains tax. Subject to a number of exclusions we have to pay tax on the gain we realized on the sale of property. Ie: if we buy a house for $1 million and sell it for $1.5 then we would pay tax on the $0.5 million.
(unless you are a married couple and lived in the house for 2 of the prior 5 years in which case you get to exclude half a million and pay no tax.)

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Location, location, location... a million dollars doesn't buy you what you think it would in the SF Bay Area.

If I had a million dollars

I just used round numbers.
But Angela is right about location. A million in SF would allow you to buy

A nice 2 bedroom 1 bath home.

In Newport Beach, near me, a million would get you:

A 4 bedroom 3.5 bath home

Out near Vic there is nothing at that price. The closest home I could find even near a million is:

This Apple Valley 7 beds 6 baths home for $899,000.

I honestly don't know WHAT I would do with six bathrooms. A gal can only tinkle so much!

I honestly don't know WHAT I would do with six bathrooms. A gal can only tinkle so much!

5 kids?

When I was much younger, most of the places our family lived in had 1 bathroom and toilet, or 2 bathrooms, but still only the one toilet. With 2 brothers & a sister, and Mum & Dad, mornings could get a bit hectic. Then when other families came to visit...
Especially in Winter it paid to be the first to use the toilet as the plumbing at that end of the house tended to freeze on really cold nights. There was just that 1 flush till later in the morning (or early in the afternoon) when the water started to flow again. Generally we made use of the kitchen water supply & a bucket to keep things from getting too smelly.

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Grant
Darwin NT

One would have to use the neighbour's one day a week....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Finland

Voine, Voine.... And Kosipää!
You know nothing about finn sentiment or politics.
Pjosks!
Person like Urho Kekkonen and the two wars against Russia in the WWII.
And Jarmo Bräkinen:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rscNUpAKCME

I honestly don't know WHAT I would do with six bathrooms. A gal can only tinkle so much!

5 kids?

Nope. Hers and his with 4 kids.

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I honestly don't know WHAT I would do with six bathrooms. A gal can only tinkle so much!

I have a friend (from a wealthy family) who bought a 12 bedroom house. When I asked her why so large she jokingly told me it was because she wanted a clean bedroom each month and this way she only clean the house once a year.

I honestly don't know WHAT I would do with six bathrooms. A gal can only tinkle so much!

I have a friend (from a wealthy family) who bought a 12 bedroom house. When I asked her why so large she jokingly told me it was because she wanted a clean bedroom each month and this way she only clean the house once a year.

She can buy the house, but won't hire any help?

Was just poking around on the local real estate property tax website, and found Papa John's house here is assessed at $11 million, with a tax bill this year of about $38,000. That's a lot of pizza!

Just to give it some context, $11 million for a house is a lot of money in Louisville. My house, which my parents bought in the 1960's for less than $15 thousand, is assessed at around $126 thousand now, and it is a nice 3 bedroom house with a basement on a 1/4 acre lot. Louisville real estate is cheap, so Papa John really has a mansion.

Interesting. a 3br on 1/4 acre here in my hood would go for about $1M. So $11M there would be around $100M here, or the Playboy Mansion which did sell for $100M. That's a lot of house.

Indeed, the neighborhood affects the assessment. Even though by national standards, Louisville is cheap, in other parts of town, the same square footage as what I have goes for a lot more, and there are other neighborhoods where you can get what I have for significantly less.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Does this sound your "job"?
Everyday heroes: family admins

There are unsung heroes out there, especially those who accomplish ungrateful tasks out of a sense of duty or charity for others. While there's International Volunteer Day and much appreciation for social commitment, one species of helpers mostly stays in the background: family administrators. It took a while for their field of activity to take form but it's seen rapid growth in the wake of mass Internet use ever since! I'd like to honor these ladies and gentlemen by describing their typical daily routine. And believe me, it's not as fictional as you might think.

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Reboot of "Spitting Image" because of you know who???

Donald Trump's 'Spitting Image' to go on show

A rubber caricature of US President Donald Trump designed by one of the creators of satirical TV show Spitting Image is to go on display.

The show's co-creator Roger Law said he was approached by US network NBC about rebooting the show.

The American spin-off is expected to be penned by US writers, although the puppets will be made in the UK.

Law's Trump puppet will go on display in Norwich as part of a retrospective of the artist's work.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Things that drive you potty No. 137

Opening a jar of Marmite to put on your toast and finding out that someone's been there before you and dipped a buttered knife in it, leaving flecks of butter behind in the jar.

That reminds me, the place where I like to go for Scotch eggs always brings out a cute little mini jar of Coleman's mustard with it, and the jar is always full in spite of the fact people stick their knives in it for a dollup or two. Do they top off the jars or use new ones everytime?

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

My internet provider (Telstra) has just given me an extra 500GB of data downloads for free. That makes it 1000GB. How cool eh?

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Our system is different. I have unlimited data on both our cell phones and cable. I do pay extra for speed. 60 Mbps is standard and I pay $10 a month extra for 100 Mbps.
Here is what my wireless lap top is actually getting.

My son who is a gamer is hardwired. He typically gets the full 100 Mbps.

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