If you’re going through a difficult divorce and trying to figure out what to do about your unwanted real estate, then keep reading this blog post to give you our best suggestions about selling your house while divorcing in San Antonio…
Divorce can be challenging and emotional. Yet, in the midst of the difficult situation, you might be like other divorcing couples who own a house and are trying to figure out how to go about selling your house while divorcing in San Antonio. Here are our best strategies and ideas to help you navigate the real estate portion of your divorce as carefully and efficiently as possible.
Houses In Divorce Can Be Complicated
If neither spouse wants to stay in the family home, or if neither can afford to buy out the other, you can put the property on the market and try to get the best possible price for it. Keep in mind that before the sales proceeds can be divided, you’ll have to pay off the mortgage, any equity line or second mortgage, and the broker’s fees.
During a divorce, the two parties seek to split their assets in half. For some assets are liquid (such as money), it’s very easy to do. For other assets, including real estate, it’s much harder to do because how do you split a house in half? It’s one asset that derives its value from being whole, and it’s usually a structure built on a plot of land, so it’s not going anywhere.
Since cutting the house down the middle isn’t an option, should one party get it or the other? And maybe in some divorces, one party might be invited to take the house only if they can pay for it (which is a massive expense a time that people rarely want to incur such expenses).
There are 5 things you should take in consideration before taking any decision:
- Acknowledge your emotions and remain rational – The first step in selling the house during divorce is to acknowledge that you will most likely have an emotional reaction. Because of this, it is completely normal to feel emotional about moving on.
- Make sure selling the home during divorce is the best financial decision- Since the home may be your biggest asset, there is going to have to be a significant “give” in order to balance out the marital assets.
- Determine the practicality of a new home-If you make the decision to sell the home, whether to your spouse or to a third party, you will need a place to live.
- Work with trusted professionals when selling the house during divorce- Determining whether or not to keep the home after divorce is not an easy process. That is why it is even more important to work with trusted professionals who can help assist you with the different aspects of the process.
- Collaboration is key- While it may be easy to see your spouse as your adversary in the divorce process, better decisions surrounding the marital residence are made when you are able to work together.
Here’s How To Split The Real Estate Asset
The best way to split the real estate asset is to sell it:
The property itself might have some expenses incurred during the sales process, or there might be outstanding bills, or there might still be a partial outstanding mortgage on the property. So the two divorcing parties should probably just sell the property and direct their attorneys to apply the money earned from the equity to any outstanding debts.
The remaining amount can then be split between each party, with each party getting an agreed-upon percentage (such as 50/50).
But this begs the question — how do you sell the property?
The Fastest Way To Sell A Divorce House
When it comes time to sell, most people think of selling through a real estate agent. Unfortunately there’s a few problems with this:
- the agent will make the owners pay out-of-pocket to fix up the property first — but who pays for that?
- the agent will then list the house, which can take 3-6 months to sell (sometimes longer) — can either party wait that long?
- the agent will then involve both parties in the negotiation with the buyer and there is A LOT of paperwork to shuffle back and forth
This is a costly and time-consuming way to sell, and it can actually make the divorce proceedings so much worse.
Fortunately, there’s another way to sell and that’s to sell your house to a real estate buying firm (which is what we do here at Hank Buys Houses). The real estate buying firm will buy your house quickly, for cash, in as-is condition (and as a bonus, there are never any commissions or fees to pay). You don’t have to clean up or fix up the property and the sale can be completed in days, not months, with very little paperwork.
If you’re going through divorce and want to just be done with it and move on with your life, just reach out to us and tell us about the house you want to sell. We specialize in buying divorce houses and we can help you expedite your divorce by buying this house from you.