Mortgage Recording Tax

1. Pay cash!
2. Assume seller's mortgage

Yes, it's doable -- we bought our condo with a CEMA and owed $0 mortgage tax. *However* -- it's a giant pain for the seller's lawyer, your mortgage bank's lawyer, and the title company, so all parties have to be willing to play ball. My attorney mentioned that with a sponsor sale, like ours, the sponsor basically has to structure their original mortgage in a way that makes it feasible -- it would have been very hard to after-the-fact.

You probably have the best chance of getting it in a sponsor sale where it's an incentive the developer offers, or from a very flexible private seller. We got it because our building's preferred mortgage lender actually suggested to me that I ask for it. We did, made it part of our original offer, and made the contract contingent on it.

As Kiz mentioned, you can do a CEMA, some new developments allow it by doing a splitter on their current construction loan. Or you can do it on a re-sale if the seller has a mortgage with a bank that allows the assignment. But the amount you'll save on mortgage tax will depend on the amount of the mortgage the seller has. Yes, a lot more work for the attorneys, title company, and bank but if its allowed, why not? sunny.hong@bankofamerica.com