Purchased home in October 2023 - use tax preparer or DIY my taxes this year?

So I bought my first house back in October 2023 and I'm trying to figure out if I should hire someone to do my taxes or just do them myself like I usually do. I've always used TurboTax for my pretty straightforward returns (just W-2 income, standard deduction) but now with the house purchase I'm wondering if the mortgage interest deduction and everything else makes it worth getting a professional. The closing costs were about $15,000 and my mortgage is around $2,200/month with about $1,500 of that being interest right now. I've heard there are a bunch of first-time homebuyer credits or deductions I might qualify for too. I make about $85,000 a year at my regular job. No other major life changes - still single, no kids. I'm just worried about missing something important related to the house purchase that could save me money. Has anyone been in this situation? Is it worth paying for a tax preparer or am I overthinking this?

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19 comments

Gabrielle Dubois

•8M

Congrats on the home purchase! Whether you need a tax preparer really depends on your comfort level with the new tax implications. Buying a home adds a few new elements to your taxes, but they're not overly complicated. The main benefits come from itemizing deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. You can deduct mortgage interest and property taxes, but only if your total itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction ($12,950 for single filers in 2023, $13,850 for 2024). With just 3 months of mortgage interest in 2023 (Oct-Dec), you might not have enough to itemize for the 2023 tax year. Your total interest for those months would be around $4,500, plus property taxes and other potential itemized deductions. Unless your state/local taxes, charitable contributions and other itemizable expenses push you over the standard deduction threshold, you might not benefit from itemizing yet. The first-time homebuyer credits from previous years have expired, though some states offer their own programs.

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Gabrielle Dubois

•8M

Some closing costs may be deductible, but not all of them. Mortgage points (also called discount points) can be deductible in the year you paid them if they meet certain criteria. These are essentially prepaid interest and can be deducted in the year of purchase if the loan is for your primary residence, points are a normal amount for your area, and a few other conditions. Other deductible closing costs might include mortgage interest paid at closing and real estate taxes. Things like appraisal fees, inspection costs, and title insurance generally aren't deductible. Your lender should have provided a Form 1098 that shows mortgage interest paid, including any deductible points.

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Ingrid Larsson

•8M

I was in your exact situation last year and I tried using TurboTax at first but got really confused with all the homeowner stuff. I ended up using this AI tax tool called taxr.ai and it was a lifesaver! I just uploaded my closing documents and mortgage statements, and it analyzed everything for me and told me exactly what was deductible and what wasn't. The site (https://taxr.ai) has this document analysis feature that's perfect for homebuyers because it interprets all those confusing closing cost documents and tells you exactly what's tax deductible. It saved me so much time trying to figure out what was what in my closing paperwork.

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Ingrid Larsson

•8M

It's different from TurboTax because it specifically focuses on analyzing your documents to find deductions rather than just walking you through forms. The document analysis is where it really shines - you upload your closing documents and mortgage statements and it extracts all the relevant tax info automatically. It doesn't file your taxes directly - it gives you a complete breakdown of what's deductible and what's not, then you can either enter that info into your regular tax software or give the report to your tax preparer. I used the report with TurboTax and it made everything super clear about what numbers go where.

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Zainab Mahmoud

•8M

Ok I have to admit I was skeptical about taxr.ai but I decided to try it after struggling for hours with my mortgage documents. I uploaded my closing disclosure and other mortgage docs and it immediately identified about $3,200 in deductible expenses I would have completely missed! The breakdown of exactly which closing costs were deductible vs. not was so helpful. The document analysis was actually really impressive - it even found a deductible expense buried in the fine print of page 6 of my closing disclosure that I'm 100% certain I would have missed. Going to use it for all my tax document analysis from now on.

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Ava Williams

•8M

If you're having trouble getting answers about your particular tax situation, I highly recommend using Claimyr to actually talk to someone at the IRS. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to the IRS about a homebuyer tax question last year and kept hitting busy signals or disconnects. I found this service at https://claimyr.com that basically holds your place in the IRS phone queue and calls you when an agent is ready. They have this demo video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) that shows how it works. I was super skeptical but I was desperate after trying to call the IRS for days. Within about 2 hours I was talking to an actual IRS agent who answered all my specific questions about my home purchase deductions. It saved me from making a costly mistake on my return.

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Ava Williams

•8M

The way it works is they use an automated system that continually redials the IRS for you when the lines are busy. It essentially waits in the queue on your behalf using their system, then when they finally get through, they call you and connect you directly to the IRS agent. You don't have to sit there redialing for hours. It's not about getting "priority access" - you still wait in the same queue as everyone else, but their system does the waiting instead of you having to stay on the phone or repeatedly call back. I was able to go about my day and just got a call when an agent was available.

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Lena Müller

•8M

OK I need to apologize to Profile 15 because I was 100% wrong about Claimyr. After calling the IRS 17 TIMES over 3 days and never getting through, I was desperate enough to try it. I figured it was worth a shot since I needed answers about deducting my mortgage insurance premiums. I signed up, and about 90 minutes later I got a call connecting me directly to an IRS representative! The agent answered all my questions about my mortgage deductions. Turns out I was eligible to deduct my mortgage insurance premiums since my AGI was under the limit, which saved me about $750 on my taxes. Never would have known this if I couldn't get through to ask.

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TechNinja

•8M

For what it's worth, I've been a homeowner for 10 years and still do my own taxes with TurboTax. Unless your situation is super complicated (like you're running a business from your new home or did some kind of unusual financing), the homeowner stuff isn't that hard. TurboTax walks you through it all with questions. The main things you'll deal with are: 1) Mortgage interest (from Form 1098 your lender sends) 2) Property taxes (also on Form 1098 usually) 3) If you paid points at closing (should be on Form 1098) If this is your only "complication" to your taxes, I personally wouldn't pay a preparer, but that's just me. I'd rather learn how it works myself.

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TechNinja

•8M

In my first partial year, I wasn't able to itemize because I only had about 4 months of mortgage interest which wasn't enough to exceed the standard deduction. I just took the standard deduction that first year. It wasn't until my first full calendar year of homeownership that itemizing made sense. But it's still worth running the numbers both ways in TurboTax (itemized vs standard) to see which gives you the better outcome. The software makes this comparison pretty easy.

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