Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt

Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by ajsnigrutin on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @02:41PM (#29085629)

I mentioned the idea in another thread... but yeah... 0% property tax on your first property and primary residence, 1% on the second, 2% on the third...

Still makes it possible to own several houses/apartments (eg. summer home), but makes it impossible to do at a scale that those companies do.

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Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by mywittyname on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:43PM (#29086457)

Own a bunch of shell companies that own a single property each.

Real estate ownership is a mess. It can be nearly impossible for people to figure out who actually owns property if the entity buying wishes to remain secret.

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Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by rozap on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:56PM (#29086600)

Could you get around this by requiring the residence be owned by a natural person to qualify for a primary residency tax rate?

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Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by mywittyname on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @05:28PM (#29087610)

Maybe, but a lot of people have legitimate reasons for holding their home in a trust.

If the savings are great enough, it would make sense to pay someone to "own" the house, with a contract saying that they must act at your direction. This isn't some crazy idea either, that's basically the approach that's already taken by these same people that hide their identities through shell companies. The "owner" of the shell company is some random B'zean who is paid to be a rubber stamp.

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Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt by Scoundreller on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:00PM (#29086644)

Then charge the full tax rate when the ownership is a non-natural ???.

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