I am entering my 2nd year at a full need school and I am wondering what factors affect my financial aid. My financial aid has varied wildly each year and I’m interested in estimating what I will get this year (yes, I’m very late, and I’m working on sending everything in, but we got selected for verification this year).
We own a house worth about 1M (due to locale, it’s not a big/nice house at all) and we rent out half the house because my parents both work very little due to health issues. They also have a partnership worth about 200k generating some profit. Their income is really low (30k AGI including rent + business income) but nonetheless we are not getting nearly as much financial aid as the financial aid calculator for my school says we would. Do they use our house as an asset they are docking some percentage from? I’m assuming they are taking some percentage from the business value but I’m wondering if they are taking from house equity too, as I’m still paying a lot. My parents aren’t helping me with tuition and last year I had to loan more money in addition to getting max Pell Grant and every federal loan (Perkins, Unsubsidized, Subsidized).
I don’t know the breakdown but the AGI on 1040 is 30k. I dont know about deductions either. Own outright. $0 in assets/savings/investments (maybe a few thousand in the bank, but basically what comes in each month goes out for living costs–as you said, property tax is expensive, around 12000 a year).
Yes CSS profile. I was doing the math for our FA in the past year and it seems like they’re including the house we live in, or theyre taking some ridiculous high percentage for the business. Like 4% of half our house + 4% of the business is about what we’re paying but I’m just curious if that’s the way they’re breaking it down. They have 0 in retirement plans so the house + business is their retirement plan, and the income they’re getting is going to be enough for them to live after I graduate college.
I’m just wondering because I was originally under the impression that our primary house doesn’t count towards assets. I understand the business is an asset and they’ll take some percentage of that. I wonder if they counted half our house as an asset because we’re renting half of it out. The house is roughly 1900 square feet so it’s not tiny, but they’re putting 4 of us in half that because we need the money from rent.
The situation seems weird because they fully own the house, but it’s because they used to make a lot of money each doing 80+ hours of manual labor a week running their business but functionally theyve been forced to retired 4 years ago to a combination of arthritis/bone pain and digestive issues.
From your other posts it sounds like you’re at [MIT](https://due.mit.edu/initiatives/financial-aid). Their website says they don’t consider home equity. I don’t think NPCs are accurate for people who own businesses.
Your parents each worked 80 hours/week and made a lot of money but have no savings? That’s unfortunate. What’s their total income now (before deductions)?
Their savings all went into their current (expensive) house, which is fully paid off. Not sure what before deductions but their adjusted gross income is 30k. I know they say they don’t consider home equity but I suspect they count part of our house since we rent part of our house out, and I’m wondering if this is a common practice.
The parent owned business sounds like a factor. Any rental income from the part of your house they rent is included as income also…how much was that amount?
In addition, the part of your house that is rented is considered an asset for financial aid purposes, I believe. So while MIT doesn’t consider primary home equity, the portion rented out is NOT YOUR primary home. And since it’s fully paid off, the full value of that portion is an asset, I believe. BUT that amount would have been on your FAFSA as well, and you would not have had a $0 EFC which is what you would have needed for a $0 EFC.
What was your parent GROSS income in 2016 from their business…before they took whatever deductions they took. There are many deductions allowed by the IRS for tax purposes that are NOT allowed for financial aid purposes…and are added back in as income.
Also, did your parents contribute to a tax deferred retirement account? And if so, how much EACH? That amount of contribution from 2016 also would be added back in as income.
Something isn’t right with your story. As business owners, they could not file a 1040A or 1040EZ form. They are not dislocated workers. Did you get food stamps or some other means tested benefit when a HS senior? If so, your assets would not have been considered. So…any of these pertain to your parents?
If they say they don’t consider the primary residence, the value of the part you live in isn’t considered. But I suppose the half your family rents out may be considered a business since that’s what it is. You could ask the financial aid people at MIT how your aid is calculated.
Your parents total income matters. Colleges don’t use adjusted gross income to calculate financial aid because people take lots of deductions.
How much are you paying annually to attend MIT? What aid DID the school give you?
It’s possible that you had a $0 EFC on the FAFSA and qualified for,the simplified needs test somehow there (see my post above). BUT there is NO simplified needs test in the Profile, and no auto $0 either.
Profile schools look at everything with a fine tooth comb before they award THEIR institutional money to students.
It’s very possible that the half of your $1 million house that is rented…the value of that would be $500,000…is considered an asset by MIT, and of course the rental income is…income. $500,000 in real estate equity would add over $25,000 to your family contribution for MIT…at least. Some colleges consider a much higher %age on equity in property other than the primary residence.
But like i said…this rental “property” should also have appeared on your FAFSA.
What year were you selected for verification? If this is your second year of college coming up…how much variation could there be…I don’t think MIT has even sent awards out yet for the 2018-2019 school year.
And I can fully understand why MIT selected you for verification…if I don’t think your story adds up…neither do they…and they are requiring documentation of what you have included on your Profle forms…and FAFSA.
You know…your Profile and FAFSA could have been sent to MIT on October 1, 2017…so…why did you wait so long?
Is the rental agreement a proper business agreement? If that AGI of 30K includes the rent, it would seem a low rent is being charged? How much rent are they charging? Is it to family?
Were you verified last year also? Or is this your first verification? Is your verification information going to match last years input information?
First, while the portion of the house you live in might be exempt, the portion that is rented is not. They treat the house as equivalent to two properties, and the rented portion is an asset. So 4% of $500,000 gets you $20,000 toward EFC to start. The partnership may also be considered an asset, to be charged at 4%.
Second, your AGI may be $30,000 but your actual income is probably much higher. I don’t know where your parents’ house is, but I know that the rent on a Million dollar home is likely to be significant (someone with a million dollar mortgage would be paying $40-50k in mortgage interest alone), plus property taxes, plus other expenses. If you parents take in half of that as rent - let’s say $25,000 they would then deduct half of the property taxes, and depreciation on that half of the house (That would depend on the basis in the house when they started to rent it). Depreciation reduces the taxes that are paid, but is probably added back in when calculating aid, so income before deductions is probably pretty high. Because your parents have significant rental property, AGI is not a good indicator of income.
Since they splitting a 900 sq ft home, doubt they’re getting that much in rent as they’d be sharing Kitchen, living room, etc. renters may be relatives.
I think the issue is the gross income of business, its value, the partnership, and portion of home is a rental.
So they are renting out almost 1000 sq ft in a high rent area.
In a high rent area (e.g Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston) rent for even a bedroom could cost over $1500 a month. 1000 sq feet could easily be $2000 a month…or more.
The house is 1900 sq ft, not 900. A ~950 sq ft rental is large enough to fit a 2 BR apt with its own LR, kitchen, and private bath. If they bought a mother/daughter, the rental portion may be entirely separate from the family’s living space.
My point is that you don’t get as much money for rent when you’re sharing a property as you would if you were renting out a standalone property. The rent collected would be much less because the renters are not getting privacy and aren’t getting private use kitchen and living room. The renters are essentially renting whatever bedroom/bedrooms they are getting and getting kitchen privileges.