If you’re going through a divorce, there’s a lot on your mind. Sell Your House Fat in Dallas simultaneously adds even more stress to the situation. Real estate is often a primary focus in divorce proceedings as you decide what to do about your shared home. For many couples, a home is their greatest asset. It also may hold sentimental value to both sides. Home ownership questions — be it the division of assets in a sale or who gets to keep the home itself — are complicated and can get testy.
You don’t have to Sell your house Fast in Dallas during a divorce, but there are some reasons why selling may be the better choice. Despite the stress and headaches of selling during a divorce, it may be the preferred option for some reason.
- FINANCIAL REASONS
You may have had two incomes to cover the expenses when you bought the house together. If either party can’t afford the mortgage, insurance, property taxes, and maintenance on a single income, selling the home may be the most viable option.
The Home Sale Tax Exclusion says that if you are married and Sell Your house Fast in Dallas, you don’t have to pay capital gains taxes on up to $500,000 in profit. If you’re single, the capital gains tax exclusions drop to $250,000. To be eligible for the exclusion, you must have lived in your home as a primary residence for two of the last five years. If one person hasn’t or won’t live in the home, it may make more financial sense for both parties to sell the house before a divorce is finalized so you can write off a larger profit.
Couples can apply for this tax break whether they file a joint tax return or if they file separately, so you don’t have to be still married come tax time. There’s a major financial incentive to selling the home before getting divorced.
- LEGAL REASONS
Divorce can be peaceful and reasonable when the parties can deal with each other. Unfortunately, this is the exception. In many cases, dividing property, including a family home, is not straightforward. There are also specific laws that determine whether a property is “marital property.” That said, in Massachusetts, laws allow judges to split a couple’s property as they deem fair. Thus, if an agreement can’t be made outside of court on dealing with assets, the legal route would be for a judge to decide.
Often, the simplest solution is to sell the house privately. A local real estate agent or appraiser can assist you in getting a property evaluation. Consider the legal costs of going to court vs. settling out of court. In most cases, each person contributed to purchasing the home, even if it wasn’t a 50/50 split. If you each want the house but can’t agree outside of court over who should get it, the courts will decide for you.
Court battles rarely work out just like either party would like, leading to further animosity between the couples complicating the divorce. Most people want to avoid legal action, so a more straightforward solution is to agree to sell the house and split the proceeds. Once the family home is sold, the division of assets in the divorce should become more comfortable since you’re not trying to speculate on the house’s future value. Selling takes time and effort but agreeing to sell and split the money will avoid the pain and expense of a legal battle.
- LIABILITY REASONS
If one person insists on keeping the house, it’s essential to understand the liability risks and difficulties of being a single homeowner.
One spouse may have enough income to take over the mortgage and all payments, which also means eliminating the other spouse from liability. They’ll have to talk to the lender and refinance the house, qualifying on a single income for a likely purchased home with two incomes. The spouse who wants the house might have the liquid cash to buy out the other, but a lender might disagree that they’ll have the continuing income to keep up with the increased payments.
If the lender won’t back a single owner and the other spouse refuses to continue making payments on the house, you have to sell or risk foreclosure. Home ownership comes with significant liability risks and financial requirements. If you can’t take on those risks alone, you could lose your home or destroy your credit.
- EMOTIONAL REASONS
Divorce and selling a home usually go hand in hand because of the psychological issues of keeping the property. You may have built a happy and fulfilling life in your home, including pets and children, and improvements to make it just like you like it. With your spouse’s departure, though, the once-happy home can quickly become unpleasant to live in. Memories of better times – or the bad times – can taint the comfort you once experienced in your house. Some people are not interested in going through these feelings day in and day out.
This is, in fact, one of the more prominent reasons that one of the parties may decide at some point in the future that keeping the house was not all that it was cracked up to be. The emotional factor is also something that people don’t think about enough. There are so many things going through your mind when going through a divorce that often your judgment can become clouded. While there will always be happy memories around your marital home – children being born, first pets, and family dinners – there are also unhappy memories that might shadow the happy ones.
Once the divorce has been finalized, living in the same home may become unbearable. Emotional reasons for Sell Your House Fast in Dallas during a divorce are often the most common. Sometimes selling can be the best option to allow both parties a fresh start. You will always have happy memories, but leaving will let the sad ones slowly fade away. You don’t want to be responsible for all repairs, closing costs, and related risks. If you sell the house before your divorce, that’s on you as a couple, Rank said. You pay all closing costs and expenses together. Once you’re divorced, your ex isn’t on the hook for anything related to the house sale unless it’s specified in the divorce decree.
If you and your ex don’t retain joint ownership of the house, then whoever is on the mortgage also assumes other risks associated with selling later, such as “structural risks” of undiscovered problems like cracks in the foundation, radon, or mold.
If you still have any questions or you want to learn more about our process, please call us at any time or contact us online for your zero-obligation consultation, free of charge.
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