<p>So my FAFSA indicates loss of money my parents have on a second property they own. We are a low to mid income family. I was wondering whether losing money on a property will help me get more financial aid or will the fact that my parents earn a second property hurt me in terms of getting more financial aid. Thanks in advance for any responses.</p>
<p>Are you saying the property is now worth less than any outstanding mortgage on it? If so that will not necessarily help you but it won’t hurt you. FAFSA will consider the equity in the property (what it is worth versus what is owed on it).</p>
<p>I dont know the exact details but I do know that schedule E of our tax return shown a loss that was subtracted from the AGI. What that means im not sure. I also do know that my parents have partial ownership of a secondary property they just purchased this past year. I do not know however how it was financed.</p>
<p>Okay. Anything shown on a schedule E which is then deducted from the AGI will help because it means less Adjusted Gross Income on the tax return.
As far as the partial ownership in the secondary property, any equity in that property will have to be shown as investments on the FAFSA and will affect FA.</p>
<p>So will the fact of having an investment outweigh the fact that the AGI is lower and lead to less financial aid?. I am not sure what the investment is but i assume its around $30k and my parents just told me they do have a mortgage on the second property. Also, our AGI came out to be around $36k</p>
<p>If your total AGI came out at $36K you should see some decent FA. The issue will be that some schools will provide FA in the form of loans. There are lots of posts on this issue but generally speaking, most of the older/wiser parents on these boards feel that it is a big mistake to take out large student loans to finance an undergraduate degree.
You should apply (or hopefully did apply) to a range of schools that you would be okay with. Then it is a matter of comparing all the FA offers when they come in.</p>