Looks like we’ve got a little bit of a real estate theme going on here the last couple of posts.

That’s what people are asking us about, so that’s what we’re talking about.

This time, we’re talking about real estate and estate planning where a house is set to go to multiple heirs at the death of the current owner of the home, and how to make sure that happens with as little conflict, animosity, and litigation as possible.

To begin with, it’s important to understand that real estate and multiple parties with different viewpoints is not a good combination.

Why?

Great question.

It’s a bad combination because it’s very difficult to divide real estate up.

If you have $100,000 dollars in the bank and someone wants to take their share and go, you just do that.

If you have $100,000 in real estate and someone wants to take their share and go, that’s a lot more difficult.

First, you can’t usually sell a fractional share. No one wants that.

Second, because of that, the only person that can purchase the property is the other owner. That’s also not possible sometimes.

So, what do you do?

You simple establish clear rules and regulations for how and when the property will be liquidated. If you want to provide an opportunity for the heirs to be able to purchase the property you can do that. If you don’t you can direct that it be sold on the open market (where the heirs will, technically, have an opportunity to purchase the property – they simply must be the highest bidder).

By taking a little bit of time up front to think about how to structure this transfer and distribution you can save a lot of heartache, a lot of animosity, and avoid creating warring factions in the family.

If you want to know how to do this, set up a time for us to chat.

Cheers,

Christopher Small
Estate Planning Attorney

PS – Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.