Real estate comes in many forms. There are residential properties such as houses, condominium units, vacation places, and apartment buildings. Examples of commercial real estate would be warehouses, individual restaurants or stores, and multiple-business properties such as strip malls. Then, of course, there’s land, whether held for farming, for benefiting from natural resources, or for eventual development.
Likewise, there are many ways you can use real estate to provide support for MUSC. Here are some of the possibilities:
- By means of an outright transfer
- Through a bargain sale
- As an asset used to fund a charitable remainder trust
- With a retained life estate allowing you to continue to use the property
Moreover, each of the options listed above can be implemented either currently or at the end of your lifetime.
Lifetime gifts in particular offer several advantages. First, they feature income tax deductions based on the property’s fair market value, as determined by an appraisal that meets IRS requirements. Next, capital gains tax that would be owed if you sold the property is reduced, delayed, or sometimes even avoided entirely. This can be especially important when part of the gain would be attributable to depreciation claimed in years past. Third, your gift can help MUSC right away, either by producing money we can devote to our mission now or by improving our financial position as we plan for the future.
As you might imagine, with an asset as valuable as real estate, care must be taken in structuring any sort of charitable gift. This means that MUSC (or the trustee of a trust created by you) will need to be satisfied with the property’s physical, financial, and legal characteristics. Potential items to be addressed might include environmental issues, the existence of a mortgage, or the manner in which the real estate is titled.
Whether it’s due to market conditions, personal lifestyle considerations, or other reasons, if “the time has come” to make some disposition of a property you own, think about using the property – or perhaps just a portion of it – to make a truly meaningful gift to MUSC. We would be pleased to work with you and your advisors to focus on the details and help you pursue the best course.
