There are many factors that must be considered when deciding what to do with the family home upon divorce. The two main choices are either to buy out the other person’s interest in the property, or to sell and split the proceeds. Both have pros and cons. Should you decide to buy out the other person’s interest in the property. You have to consider the following factors. The first factor is whether you can truly afford to make the payments by yourself. If you’ve been the main breadwinner, then it’s possible that you can. You also have to remember that with divorce, also comes new bills, like child support and possibly alimony. Can you afford those bills in addition to the mortgage payment? Another factor to take into consideration is whether your credit is good enough to refinance. If it’s not, you may be better off selling. You also have to consider how much equity there actually is at the time that you file for divorce. It’s only fair that you buy out their interest at the market value that it was when you filed. The other option is to sell the property and split the proceeds. In today’s economy, this may be the better choice. You may need to get the bank to approve a short sale if the house is worth less than the loan, but it may be worth it because it gives both of you an opportunity to start over from scratch. If there is any equity, this gives you both a little nest egg to get started with, that you can either use as a down payment on a home of your own, or just to put in the bank and have for the future. Either way, this is the best option. The major con in this decision is that it may be hard to give up the home that you may have worked so hard to get. The emotional part of you wants to keep it, but the smart thing to do is to sell it. This was what would have happened in my divorce had my ex husband been willing to cooperate with me. Neither of us had good enough credit to refinance, and had he put the house on the market when he was supposed to, we both would have wound up with about $30,000 in our bank accounts, which is not a bad way to start a new life. Unfortunately, he let his emotions rule him, and lost the house to foreclosure. This brings us to a third option. You can let the house go into foreclosure. In my case, I was fortunate that my name was never on the title to the house. My credit was so bad when we bought the house that I was afraid to put my name on the loan. As a result, my credit was not further ruined by his actions. However, if you own the house together as most couples do, you stand to lose a lot if your home goes into foreclosure. In this economy, however, it may actually be the best decision if you can’t make a short sale. Whatever your decision is, make sure that you think it through with your head and not your emotions. Most people’s emotions in a divorce will not steer them in the right direction. Thinking things through logically, however, will. Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society
