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.
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.