You are going to get divorced, and you don’t know if you should keep your home or sell it. You love the house and don’t really want to move, but you also don’t know if just holding onto it is the best option.
It’s a tough decision, and the answer can be different for everyone. It’s also one of the most important choices that you’ll make. To help you, please consider these five questions:
- What other housing options do you have? Is it financially possible to buy another house on your own, or will you have to rent? Take a look at your future either way.
- Will you be able to afford the house after the split? You’re living on two incomes while you’re married. Can you pay the mortgage, property taxes, insurance premiums and everything else? Can you pay for repairs? You don’t want to just scrape by.
- What value does your home have? It’s tough to swallow selling it at a loss. If you’d both make $50,000, though, that has to factor in. That money could be nice to have in the months after the divorce.
- Would it help you emotionally to move on? It’s hard to think of moving, but you and your soon-to-be-ex bought the house together. Some people find it very hard to live in that home alone, especially if the other person initiated the divorce.
- What are the tax implications? If you sell the house by yourself, five years from now, are you going to have to pay a lot due to the increased value?
Certainly, these are not all of the questions you should ask, but they’re a great starting place and they can get you thinking about all of your legal options moving forward.
Source: Huffington Post, “Keep or Sell the Family Home During Divorce?,” Nancy Kay, accessed Nov. 24, 2017