Homestead mailing list

["Clint Novak" <cnovak AT cns.com>]

I'm hoping all the talent on the list can help me.  My wife inherited a
couple of lots in Illinois when her mom passed away last year.  They are
planning on selling the lots and with what my wife gets we want to put
that money down on some acreage in Missouri.  We went down to Missouri
in December, had a lot of fun, but didn't find any property to our
liking.  It will probably take a while since we'd like to find acreage
on a floatable creek or river.  The property sale won't get us more than
probably $30,000, but that would be enough for a down payment.

So my questions are.
How do I minimize the taxes I have to pay(legally) if there are any?  
Some articles I've read claim the inherited amount is the fair market
value at the time of inheritance and selling it for that would produce
no additional income.

Is there a way to hold property sales income so it's available when we
finally do find the property we want?
I've looked into 1031 options, but that doesn't seem to fit very well.
It could be a couple of years till we find the property we like.  Would
paying down our home mortgage do the trick.

When we finally move, sell our house and take the money we've made from
the house is there a way to reinvest it into the property we will
hopefully have by then?

I'd like to use the money from the house sale to build a house and
outbuildings on the new site, or pay down what we owe on it.

Anyway that gives you all some idea what my concerns are, any help or
suggestions would be appreciated.  I obviously want to keep it all legal
like, but I'd like to be smart about it as well.

Thanks

Clint

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