You may think that you automatically have to sell your home when you get divorced. After all, you know that you and your spouse are supposed to split up the assets that you own. It seems like the only way to “divide” a home is to sell the home and then divide the money that you earn.
But there are actually a few other options that you may want to consider. For instance, you can buy out the other person’s share or you could continue to own the home together.
Why would you want to buy their share?
In some cases, people simply don’t want to move. Maybe you purchased your dream home. Your marriage may be ending, but you still don’t want to lose that home. The biggest thing to know about buying the other person’s share is that you probably need to refinance your mortgage to do so. Generally speaking, your ex will not want to remain on the mortgage with you because they would still be responsible for that loan if you started missing payments.
Why would you want to keep owning the home together?
Parents will sometimes decide to own a home together because their children are almost done with high school. They don’t want to make the children move further away from their friends or simply out of the home that they’ve known all their lives. They will jointly own a home while only one parent lives there.
In other cases, it’s purely a financial decision. If the value of your home is projected to go up, you can make money by keeping it and selling it later. No matter what you decide to do, dividing assets can get complicated. Take the time to look into all the legal options at your disposal.