Second Chance
This isn't so much asking about this company as it is a general rant...
Second Chance (http://www.secondchanceinc.org/) is a non-profit (501(c)3) out of Baltimore that sells used materials in their store and performs "deconstruction" of houses prior to demo. In other words, if you have a house you plan to tear-down, you can *donate* the house to them. They'll bring a crew of folks out -- the bulk of the people are in worker training programs and, I presume, are paid by tax dollars -- who will take your house apart piece-by-piece and salvage as much of it as possible (recycle or sell in their store). The process takes about two weeks and the company touts the fact that deconstruction offers training, keeps materials out of landfills, and generally makes the world a better place.
So far, so good...
I called them about a house I'm getting ready to tear down. They gave me the pitch about how much the donation of the house helps, and then mentioned that in addition to all the great things the donation provides to workers, the planet and the community, that I can also get a tax benefit from it (yes, I knew this). They reiterated what I already knew -- that I'd likely want to get an appraiser to value the materials in my house so that after donating the house, I could take a tax deduction on the donation.
So far, so good...
Then they get to the next part -- because I'm lucky enough to get a tax benefit from the house, I am required to make a cash payment (a cash "donation") to them for part, all or even more than all of my tax benefits! (They didn't put it in these terms, but that's the gist...see below)
In general, they expect that the cash donation will be a percentage of your tax benefit, so both sides benefit. But they require a minimum $15,000 cash donation (or they refuse to do the deconstruction), so if your tax benefit is less than $15K, you essentially have to pay them to donate your house.
I asked if they'd waive the cash donation if my tax benefit were less than $15K (for example, I'm in a low marginal bracket, I had itemized deduction phase-out, I had too many carry-forward losses, etc), and the answer was no. They would let me spread the donation over several years, but I'd have to pay extra to do that.
Here's the funniest part -- they have an appraiser who will come out and give a ballpark estimate of what the materials would be worth (to help determine the tax benefit to to help Second Chance determine how much they're going to require in cash payment), but then to get the official appraisal of the materials from that appraiser would cost between $2000-2500. Of course, you can get your own appraiser, but there's no guarantee that he'll write an appraisal for the value their recommended guy would (which is the appraisal they'd use to determine the required cash payment).
Is it just me, or does this seem scummy to others as well?
For what it's worth, my CPA nearly had an aneurism when I described this to him... :)
