How can I keep my house after divorce?

Your attorney is right... no matter what it is community property and if he insists he can force the sale of the house. If you have minor children and you have custody, you could petition to keep the house on the condition that you need dwelling for your children but if there are no kids involved, I am afraid he gets half of everything.

My advice, make sure the next guy has a job and can support himself. You should never have to be "mommy" to a man.

Good luck!

1

Have a realtor get you comparables of sales in your neighborhood and also come take a look at your home and give you an idea of what you could expect to get for the house if you were to sell it. Subtract the commission you would have to pay for the supposed sale from the list price and subtract what you paid for the house from that. Your ex would be entitled to 1/2 of that gain, if there is one in this home value downturn. You would then get a new loan in just your name and you could get the proceeds to pay him off from that new loan remainder after paying off the old loan.

On the other side, the house might get sold for less than what you paid/owe on it and he would be responsible to come up with 1/2 of the negative number which would be less attractive to him and might be the way to present it. You can be the bigger person and offer to keep paying the mortgage for a release, otherwise you will put it up for sale (don't let him know you want to keep it) and you will each have to put in 1/2 of the remaining balance owed on the loan, also taking the realtor commission into account, because the house didn't sell for what the loan is for.

It varies state to state, but the courts tend to tally up all the marital debt and assets and then divide the balance, be it positive or negative, equally. Some states can mandate the house be sold, others can't do that, but the judge will refuse to sign the decree if he feels the deal that the parties have made is not in the best interest of the children involved. The judge may grant her the home, but probably only if there are other marital assets that could go to him to help balance out the value of the home. Of course everyone says go ask a lawyer, but they aren't free unlike some good advice you might find here.

Talk him into doing the right thing and signing it over in the divorce agreement ( I was in that boat once,bought it myself while separated but it came up in the divorce) my x signed a paper stating he had nothing to do with buying the house..can you convince him their would be no profit,the loan is too big ? or the taxes are over due and you would be splitting a bill if you sold it in this economy ?

also the other option is to pay him off,to take out a loan against the house and give him what would be half of fair market value..? make the house look like crap during the appraisal too.

You can refinance the loan in your name only and pay your soon to be ex 1/2 of the equity. Determine the equity from your tax bill or your ex may insist that you get it appraised. In a community property state, if you did not have a pre or post-nup it doesn't matter that he did not contribute financially.

If you can't afford to buy him out-maybe you can work a deal with him. Do you have other assets? Does he have any retirement accounts other than SSI? All of your assets and your debts will be divided equally unless you both agree otherwise.

My ex and I did agree to some deals not typical for a community property state. He kept his pension, and I kept mine. He assumed all of his credit card debt, which was paid directly from the proceeds of his share of the equity in the house (and then he got the remaining money). I assumed the home equity loan that we had on the house (I included that amount in my refinancing).

Find out what he likes the most and offer it to him. Maybe a new paid off car or offer to pay for his apt rent for 1 year. Anything to make him think he is getting the best of the deal.

You need to become emotionally detached from the house though, much like you did with your spouse.

I would find a different attorney. When I went through a divorce, I had an attorney tell me the same thing. I found one that is known to fight for women's rights. I got EVERYTHING and the ex got his clothes and his junky vehicle. The reason he got that was because I did not want them.

Tell your lawyer to make a settlement offer to your soon to be ex husband for his share of the house, you ought to be able to come to terms with him about it, since he moved out already, sounds like he is just wanting the money anyway.

if u keep the house u will have to give ur spouse half of what the house is worth because even tho he dident pay nething he has squaters rights to ur home