When a husband and wife buy property, they usually take title as “tenants by the entirety.” With this form of ownership, each spouse owns an undivided 100 percent interest in the property.

Real estate lawyers say that married couples sometimes change the way they hold title to property to avoid or minimize estate taxes. But this strategy may not always be appropriate.

“I see this happen on a regular basis,” said Stanley Simon, a Manhattan lawyer who reviews co-op loans for lenders. “As the bank’s attorney, it’s not my place to tell people what they should or shouldn’t do. But I’m not sure that the people who are doing this have really thought it through.”

Mr. Simon said one of the benefits of holding title as tenants by the entirety is the ability to protect the property from creditors. He explained that when title is held as tenants in common — the form of ownership typically used by co-owners who are not married to each other — each owner’s interest belongs to that individual.

So with a tenancy in common, any owner can sell his or her interest to someone else, or if an owner dies, his or her share passes to heirs or beneficiaries. In addition, Mr. Simon said, any owner can petition a court to partition the property, a legal action that can result in a forced sale and distribution of the proceeds among the owners.

At the same time, Mr. Simon said, with a tenancy in common, if a creditor gets a judgment against an owner, that creditor also can ask a court to partition the property. In other words, the actions of one co-owner can result in the loss of the property by the other owner or owners.

But with title held in a tenancy by the entirety, when one spouse dies, the survivor automatically becomes the sole owner. And in New York, Mr. Simon said, a tenancy by the entirety cannot be partitioned by third parties. The practical effect of this is that if one spouse gets sued, the creditor cannot force a sale of the property.

“A tenancy by the entirety provides the best protection for the home,” Mr. Simon said.

There are, however, reasons that a married couple might want to hold title as tenants in common. William A. Cahill, Jr., an estate-planning lawyer in Brooklyn, said that under the federal tax law’s “marital deduction,” when property passes to one spouse upon the death of the other, no federal tax is due if the survivor is a United States citizen. In addition, he said, there is a federal exemption on the first $2 million of an estate left to anyone. So, if a home owned by a married couple is worth, say, $4 million, the property passes tax-free to the survivor when one spouse dies, regardless of how it is owned.

But when the second spouse dies, things get tricky. Since the federal exemption is $2 million, the value of the home above that amount — in this case, $2 million — is subject to tax when the property passes from the surviving spouse to beneficiaries.

Estate lawyers get around this, Mr. Cahill said, this way: instead of holding title as tenants by the entirety, a married couple owns as tenants in common. Then, the first spouse to die can pass his or her interest to the children in trust, allowing the survivor to remain in the property for life. And both spouses are able to take advantage of the $2 million exemption instead of one.

Ralph M. Engel, a Manhattan estate-planning lawyer, said that while a surviving joint owner may be able to renounce the interest owned by a deceased joint owner for tax purposes, it is generally more expedient to change the form of title ahead of time if estate taxes will be an issue. So, he said, property owners should carefully examine their financial situation to determine which form of ownership makes the most sense.

“Not everyone is going to get sued,” Mr. Engel said, “but we’re all going to die.”

Handling the matter of pricing is like handling a porcupine. It should be done very carefully. Often agents are faced with the challenge of feeling like they need to win a popularity contest to get the listing, and at the same time bring a sometimes-harsh reality about market value to the seller’s attention. A good pricing suggestion is built on a solid foundation of the market’s current facts and figures because ultimately the market’s opinion of value carries more weight than yours or the sellers.

The following scripts will help you present your price suggestions persuasively by incorporating current market statistics and data into your dialogue to support your recommendation. All of these have been tried and tested by top-performing real estate professionals in their markets, and with a little practice, they can work for you too.

Let customers know what your price suggestion is and that they ultimately have control over the final decision. But make them aware that there are definite costs associated with setting your asking price too high. It will take longer to sell their home, which in turn could disrupt their plans. Give the following script a try:

“As I understood it, your goal was to be out of this house in five or six months. If we set the price higher, it may take longer than that to sell it. It doesn’t make any difference to me, because I’m not going anywhere –I’m going to be here selling real estate 10 years from now. I just thought it was important to get you the most amount of money in the least amount of time possible with the fewest hassles and send you on your way with your family. Is that correct?” (Yes) “You decide how long we want to be on the market because you pick the price.”

Today’s real estate consumers are all about the cold, hard facts. If you can present them with data that backs up your price suggestion, they will be much more likely to follow your lead. The following scripts will work great in this situation:

“Mr./Ms. Seller, one of the best things about technology is that it doesn’t know how to lie. With the databases available through the county assessor’s office, through the MLS and through our own office, once we enter the specifics of your property and ask the computers for comparable properties, they bring up the hard facts. The advantage to you is you can rely on this data and it will assure you that you’ll not only get a fair price for your home in today’s market, but you’ll get a faster sale as well. You did want to get top dollar for your home quickly, didn’t you?”

“Mr./Ms. Seller, when buyers come into the market and meet with a Realtor, they give the agent their criteria, which includes a certain price range. Now we can put your home on the market at the price you’d like; however, based on the data we’ve reviewed, it would be $_______ higher than comparable properties. Yes, you can always come down; however, I’ve found you need an offer to even begin the negotiating process. When the agent is searching for homes in a certain price range, the computer doesn’t know that you’ll come down. It only searches in the price range entered, and it will shun your price, your home and you. You’re not paying me to give you input that would get you shunned, are you? Can you see how you could be damaged in the marketplace by overpricing your home?”

Along with location and condition, the price of a home is one of the most crucial components of why it will, or will not, sell. The listing price is often the first thing a buyer sees when shopping for homes, and all too often homes are overlooked by potential buyers simply because they are not in the appropriate price range. Ultimately the final decision on the price is always up to the seller. Therefore, as a Realtor it is your role to effectively present the facts to your clients to guide them into making the best decision on the price.

As popular as tax-free exchanges have become to investors and second-home buyers, facilitators are still facing the basic questions that were asked two decades ago.

The Federation of Exchange Accommodators (FEA) is a national trade organization formed in 1989 to represent qualified intermediaries (QIs) and their primary legal and tax advisors who are directly involved in Section 1031 exchanges, sometimes known as Starker exchanges. At the recent FEA mid-year conference in Washington, D.C., attendees shared common challenges they faced regarding the 1031 exchange industry. Vacation homes topped the list, even though the Internal Revenue Code is clear on the rules that differentiate a vacation or second home from investment property.

“Some business magazines and some Web sites have been giving information to consumers that is not correct,” said Tom Oldfield, a Tacoma, Wash., attorney and partner in Olympic Exchange Accommodators who attended the D.C. conference. “It seems many taxpayers believe they can exchange a vacation home at any time and that’s just not the case.”

Section 1031 of the IRS code allows that a property held either for business or investment can be exchanged tax-free for another “like kind” property of equal or great value if the exchange adheres to specific guidelines.

So, is your vacation home an investment property that can be exchanged or a second residence that would face a tax liability if it is sold? It usually comes down to how many personal days you use the property for vacation. If your vacation home is an investment property, the rule is that personal days must not exceed the greater of 14 days or 10 percent of rental days.

“Some people rent out their vacation home some years and don’t have any personal use,” Oldfield said. “Others rarely rent it out and use it solely for their family and friends. If you want to use the vacation home in a tax-deferred exchange, it must be used as a rental at least for the entire previous year and rented out at fair market value.”

Homeowners can flip-flop the status of the vacation home each year. For example, let’s say the cabin was used as a second residence in 2006 when you didn’t rent it out at all and it was used only for family weekends and reunions. However, in 2007 a college professor from the nearby community college rented the place for three academic quarters and the cabin became an investment property, thereby changing the tax status.

If you are planning to execute a 1031 tax-free exchange, make sure your vacation home held investment status for at least the previous year before attempting an exchange. While there are no absolute rules as to how long the property should be held as an investment, accountants suggest that the property show up as a rental on at least two consecutive tax returns.

“The consecutive part is what has been missing in some newspaper and magazine reports,” Oldfield said. “Some taxpayers have been led to believe that once the cabin has been used as an investment property that it can be used in an exchange at any time. If it reverts back to a second home in the year before the exchange, it would no longer be investment property and thus not eligible for the exchange.”

Income derived from renting out a second home or primary residence for a term of 14 days or fewer does not have to be reported to the IRS and does not change the tax status of the home. It’s only when you exceed the 14-day limit that a change occurs. The short-term rental (fewer than 14 days) happens all the time at pro golf tournaments where players or officials rent out fairway homes for the week or 10 days surrounding a big tournament. It’s a great way for homeowners to pocket tax-free cash.

Another popular tax strategy, especially for retirees, is to convert the second home to a primary residence. For example, let’s say a couple retires and sells the longtime family home, pocketing $500,000 tax-free from its sale. The couple moves into their vacation home, making it their primary residence. Two years later, they can sell the place, move into an in-city apartment and pocket up $500,000 tax-free again because it had become their primary residence.

Vacation homes can definitely help with your financial picture, however, make sure you are clear on the status before you attempt to trade or sell.