CSS profile and sale of home

[blessed4x]

Hi,We sold our house last December(2022).We are keeping the money to buy a new home.(for down payment)We submitted CSS profile.The college is asking if we received any net proceeds from the sale of home since we said that we are renting.How should we report this and what proof or document the college would ask to show the net proceed.(The net gain/loss is filed in this year tax return so that only applies to next year FAFSA)If there are any financial aid advisors in the forum or any parents that went through this,please advice.
Thank you.

[thumper1]

Where is that money from the sale of your house? If it’s in a regular savings account or CD or something like that on the day you file the FAFSA (or the profile) that money is listed as an asset.

So….your money in the bank is an asset and needs to be reported there…even IF you plan to use it later for something else.

[Liz1986]

I wrote about our experience in another thread a few weeks ago. We appealed our financial aid (or lack thereof) to one of my D’s final schools which required the CSS to argue that this asset should be treated as home equity. We were told we would get a decision by tomorrow.

Effect of selling primary home on FA?

We are dealing now with the consequence of selling our home in 2019 after we moved across country for a new job. In our new location, we let our D23 choose the high school she wanted to attend and the one she selected was because of its dramatic arts program (she was in a performing arts middle school). However, it was not in a town we saw ourselves living long-term. We rented a house and put our proceeds in a new account to buy one when she graduated. Since we had lived in our old house 20 years in a hot LA neighborhood, we sold it at a nice profit. On paper, we are loaded, but in reality, that’s our money to buy our next house. If we had bought a new house, the equity would not have been counted on FAFSA and we might have received some financial aid. I did add an explanation on her CSS profile but she hasn’t received a penny of FA, only merit aid.

[blessed4x]

Now I understand that this cash is considered as an asset.We have it in savings.We thought that we are going to buy a house but none came in the market where we live so we signed a lease for a condo for 2 years.So this money is going to be in our bank for 2 years.I submitted the CSS profile.If I report this as cash,what is the proof that I have to show the financial aid.Do I have to show them the bank statement or do I simply disclose the amount of cash that I have?Thank you.

[thumper1]

@blessed4x

f I report this as cash,what is the proof that I have to show the financial aid.Do I have to show them the bank statement or do I simply disclose the amount of cash that I have

Just be honest about the amount that was in your accounts the day you filed the forms. You do have an issue…if you didn’t put this asset on the profile when you filed it, you need to amend your Profile. Some folks have mentioned that they were able to do this online…but others have not been able to do so. You probably need to contact the college(s) and ask them how to add this asset.

I will tell you….back in the day, we were asked to provide bank statements to the college our older kid attended because we were selected for verification. I will add…we didn’t qualify for need based aid, but we sent them everything they asked for.

Keep in mind also, if you don’t put this on your aid forms and get need based aid by omitting this…it’s dishonest and considered fraud. So please…include your asset.

@Liz1986

. We appealed our financial aid (or lack thereof) to one of my D’s final schools which required the CSS to argue that this asset should be treated as home equity. We were told we would get a decision by tomorrow.

@Liz1986 it will be interesting to see the outcome.

[shahjan2]

If you paid taxes then no issue i think

[thumper1]

What does this have to do with how this is reported on the financial aid application forms?