Divorce Process: How to sell the house in Altamonte Springs
In your research online about divorce you probably found out that Florida is an equitable distribution state where the division of assets is not always divided in half. But the reality is that in the majority of divorce cases a 50/50 split of a house is what you can expect.
One reason is because in a marriage, the mortgage payments and repairs usually come from joint bank accounts. If this is not true in your case, it is still unlikely that there wasn’t any labor exerted from the other spouse in regards to home maintenance.
However, if you were married for just a short time there is a good chance that the house ownership percentages could be different in the eyes of a judge. For this to happen, the deed and the mortgage had been in the name of only one spouse since before the marriage took place. In the situation of an inherited property that one spouse received before (or during) the marriage, the whole house may still be owned entirely by that person after the divorce.
Why you need to sell the house before the divorce
1) You should know that there is a Florida tax exemption of $500,000 if the house is sold before the divorce. If you sell after the divorce the exemption is half.
2) Also, splitting the proceeds from the sale of the house before the divorce is much easier than planning for one spouse to assume entire ownership. That’s because child custody arrangements aren’t even known until late in the divorce process.
3) You don’t know enough to adequately plan in a timely fashion because child custody arrangements take time. This limbo plus the pre-divorce house sale tax exemption makes it common sense to sell the house before the divorce.
4) Another reason why the house should be sold before the divorce is that one person can leave and not pay anything on the mortgage while the home dweller deals with upkeep bills. If the house is sold later at a higher price, the one who didn’t pay anything suddenly gets a windfall for doing nothing. This kind of scenario might not be obvious to you in the beginning which is why you should consult local attorneys in Altamonte Springs. They see what may happen years into the future because of their experience.
5) You cannot simply request that one spouse be removed from the mortgage and the deed. Some want to pursue a quit claim deed where this is done in a superficial way but it is not enough to stand up as solid in the court of law. The only real way to remove a name from the deed is to refinance the home based on the income of the single parent. Often, this amount is not enough to qualify for the refinance which necessitates selling the house and dividing the proceeds.
6) One more reason for the breadwinning spouse to divest himself of the house is if the wife desires to stay there with the kids. How unfortunate it will be for the husband to be on the title and mortgage and be responsible for things that the wife does inside his home.
7) This last point stems from point number 6. That is, if the person who stays in the house is responsible for payments and misses one or more, that will be reflected on your credit report.
Financial constraints put limits on your options
Of course there is the option where one partner buys the other out but most of the time both partners NEED to sell the house before the divorce. Why? Because paying for 2 mortgages at one time plus alimony is not financially feasible.
For most couples, renting after the house sale and divorce will help them get back on their feet. Finding cost effective rental properties in Altamonte Springs is quite easy. Later, they can consider buying a house when their financial and emotional situations become more solid.
Gathering your paperwork
If you know that you are headed for divorce and anticipate a house sale you need to gather all your paperwork. Include the records of who has been paying the different household bills. Missing documents can be found at your Altamonte Springs county clerk’s office or downloaded through their website portal. If your spouse is malevolent and unreasonable you should take the paperwork out of the house and leave it at work or put it in a safety deposit box.
This step is especially important if you are the sole owner of the house and believe that you can benefit from living in an equitable distribution state like Florida. You don’t want to be obligated to give half of the house to your spouse when it’s not required by law.
Anyway if you and your spouse were living in a house together you can be pretty confident that your spouse will try to claim at least half of it. This is true even if it is clear that you have legal sole ownership. That rules out the Simple Dissolution of Marriage option because there will be a dispute about asset ownership.
Necessity of hiring attorneys
You should realize that a couple who is about to divorce should never do this on their own. Consulting attorneys will help you plan for the sale of your house and advise as to what steps to take. It is far better for them to analyze logistical situations and suggest resolutions.
For example, if the breadwinner spouse must travel from Altamonte Springs to a far away city and he still wants to keep the house, that spouse can be counseled away from that. Hopefully, he will end up living closer to his job as he works with his wife to sell the home before the divorce.
One big mistake is that some couples will try to do the process themselves and download forms that they believe are universally accepted. Whether working with a lawyer or without one, all the publicly available divorce forms for Altomonte Springs residents can be downloaded here.
Dividing of secondary assets
The dividing of assets (other than your house) is usually done at the attorney level. What happens is the couple sits in front of an attorney and one spouse becomes the divider and the other becomes the chooser. After everything is divided the chooser picks the list that he/she wants.
Another method happens after the divider divides all of the assets. Then a coin is flipped to decide who will receive the first item on the list. The second item is received by the other spouse. By alternating down the list the ownership of all the items is decided quickly.
These two methods may seem like we are trivializing the matter of division of assets but really it’s a way to expedite an already painful process. Of course you can take a more focused approach where all of the items are inventoried by room and then are listed in an excel spread sheet.
The cost and value of each item would be included in this list. Perhaps after the spouses bicker for hours an agreement could be made. But perhaps not. The real determinant of what method you choose is whether the couple can stand being in the same room with each other.
The limbo phase
The limbo phase is the time between your decision to divorce and the time the house is sold. Common sense would dictate that this time is quite painful and so the shorter it is the better.
Maybe during this phase you and your spouse are living under the same roof under a frail truce. Or maybe you have tried bird nesting where you and your spouse stay in the house in periodic rotations in order to share the responsibilities of taking care of your children. Perhaps one spouse has decided to move out for the long term and spend a lot less time rearing the children.
This is a time where both spouses have to act mature for the mental health of everyone involved. Keeping in direct contact with your attorneys with clear goals will help in this process. Plus, focusing on getting the house sold through a real estate investor as opposed to a realtor is important.
Selling through a real estate investor
This issue of choosing a real estate investor to get your house sold commonly comes up in divorce negotiations. The simple reason why this is best is because a realtor can’t give you a deadline for when the house will be sold. Real estate investors can close in as little as a week which will be essential in selling before the divorce (and getting your $500,000 Florida tax break).
Since your main priority is selling your home and splitting the proceeds with your spouse before the divorce, you should seriously consider giving one a call. He can provide you with a quote based on comparable properties in the surrounding Altamonte Springs area. Upon acceptance of this quote you will have closure even before the divorce happens. It will be assurance that a realtor can’t provide.
Conclusion
After a divorce you and your spouse should not own your house jointly to avoid inevitable legal hassles. In fact, the best option is selling the house even before the divorce is finalized. Following this advice will allow both you to rebound and start afresh with a large tax deduction that you can both individually take advantage of for years.
However, before you even agree to the sale there are the necessary steps of gathering paperwork and having constructive discussions with your spouse. Under the guidance of a local attorney in Altamonte Springs you have a far better chance of making your dissolution of marriage as painless as possible. In order to get the house sale finished in a timely manner your best option is to call a real estate investor rather than a realtor.