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Divorce the House Before the Spouse

By Peter Olson, Esq.

Not necessarily my view but some interesting thoughts put forth here. Some bits from the article:

?If you?re still linked through the house, than you?re not really divorced,? says Kelly Lise Murray, a Harvard-trained lawyer and Nashville real estate agent...

But Murray, who describes herself as a ?divorce real estate advocate,? says people tend to underestimate the ?ghosts? that go along with keeping the house. The place is often so filled with memories, both good and bad, she says, that ?it?s not the family home anymore. It?s a huge lodestone...?

Then there?s the even bigger issue of hidden debt. Ideally there will have been no secrets between the husband and wife. But money is a major cause of divorce, and in many cases, one spouse has no clue that the other one has rung up big bills that have become undisclosed liens against the property...

I think the premise above contains two particular advantages.

First, the divorce case is quickened and potentially "cleaner." I can't tell ya how many cases I have now that are just sort of lagging because of an inability to sell real estate...nothing too much happening but no final closure either. Of course no one can control market conditions.

Second, there's way too much guesswork in setting some value on a marital residence at some time fairly arbitrarily plus there's a lot of unknown and moving factors that have to happen for the typical refinance with buyout or sell in the future and distribute proceeds in some pre-set manner...now that's messy!

Full post as published by Closing Real Estate in Chicago on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).