Introduction
Getting a divorce can be a lot. The house, the kids, the feelings. It can all become too much, too quick. We’ll explore three alternative ways for splitting your home if a leaseback agreement is not the right fit for you.
Sell the house and split the proceeds
First, the most common option is selling the house outright and splitting everything in half. Selling is considered the cleanest way to do it since the two exes get to terminate everything that used to bind them together.
No one stays home, the couple pays the remaining expenses, and they split the proceeds evenly. Moving on!
One ex keeps the house
However, one of the exes can keep living in the house. The most common option is to refinance the mortgage to leave one spouse as the sole owner of the property.
- After refinancing, one spouse becomes the unique owner of the property.
- The freed cash allows one spouse to buy out the other’s portion.
- A refinance pays any outstanding mortgage debt.
This option, however, involves a lot of mutual agreement and compromise. Additionally, when it is time to refinance the property, the spouse who stays home must prove they can afford the mortgage.
Both keep the house
If both spouses agree it is not time to sell the property, they could continue sharing the house until it is the right time. If the couple owes money to the house, or considers that the market is not a seller’s market, they could split payments and wait it out.
In this case, usually, one spouse moves out of the house while paying for their percentage of the mortgage. Commonly, the main reason is to keep the kids in school and avoid drastic changes.
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