When Selling  Fayetteville NC homes you can likely exclude any gain from the sale of your main home form your income. Your main home is the one in which you live most of the time. To claim the exclusion, you must have owned and lived in the home for at least two years during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale.

As a single if you qualify you may exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income and $500,000 on a joint return in most cases. In other word you won't have to pay taxes on the gain. Which is as it should be since most people selling a house will need to buy another and the gain you receive will be needed for that.

If you can exclude all of the gain, you don't need to report the sale on your return. Unfortunately a loss on the sale of your main home is not deductible.

Remember, if you have more than one home, you can exclude gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.

Ref: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/industries/article/0,,id=98921,00.html

This information is deemed reliable but not gauranteed. It was written using the above reference as a guide. Because tax laws change more often than they should verify for yourself or ask your tax professional for guidance.