Questions for Divorcing Couples Selling Their Home

The housing downturn has a lot of divorcing couples struggling to decide what to do with their home. Especially when the house is the largest marital asset, the situation can easily become contentious and unclear. Here are five questions to ask yourself before deciding what to do with your shared property.

1. Does keeping your home make financial sense? Often, once a couple splits, neither party can afford the mortgage payment and maintenance of the house by themselves. If this is the case, selling is most likely your best option.
2. Could you manage to keep living together while separated? When going through a divorce, you may not be able to stand each other’s sight. It won’t work in every situation, but you might want to tough it out and continue sharing the house (just with different bedrooms) until the market rebounds and you can make a profit.
3. Are your emotions getting the better of you? Many people can’t help but develop a strong emotional attachment to a house. That’s certainly understandable, but it doesn’t always make the most monetary sense. It might help if you try viewing the house like any other asset. You’re unlikely to let emotion come into play regarding the yard tools and bedspreads; try to treat the house the same way.
4. How will you split the proceeds? You’ll want to make sure you have a plan in place to split the proceeds when the house does sell. If not, you could be thrown back into a huge argument instead of finally moving on with your life.
5. What if one of you won’t agree to a price? The negotiation process won’t go smoothly if it comes down to an argument between the two sellers. Therefore, you should have some sort of agreement as to your bottom-line price. Also, you’ll need to decide how you’ll handle counter offers.

Links:

Maintenance

http://www.saveandconquer.com/?p=37

Emotional attachment

http://www.isoldmyhouse.com/resource-guides/keep-emotions-in-check-when-selling-your-own-house/default.cfm

Negotiation process

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/03/24/7-tips-for-better-real-estate-negotiation/