One of the major questions that couples sometimes ask when getting divorced is what is going to happen to their home after the marriage ends. They likely got married and then jointly bought the house, so it counts as a marital asset. This means that it is subject to property division.
So what is going to happen to that shared home? One option is certainly to sell it. When couples are splitting up assets, it is sometimes easier to sell those assets and divide the earnings. Couples who get divorced will often just put their house on the market, sell it to an unrelated third party, split the money and then move on with their lives. But there are other options for those who dread the thought of losing their marital home.
Buying half of the house
First and foremost, one person may want to keep the house. This is possible. They just need to refinance their mortgage and then buy out their spouse’s share. They may be able to use a mortgage loan to do this, or they may trade other marital assets – retirement accounts, shares of a family business, etc – to acquire the portion of the house that their partner owns.
Owning the home together
In some cases, couples will also decide to continue being joint homeowners even after a divorce. Maybe they think it would be beneficial to sell the home in the future. Maybe they want to keep the home so that the children don’t have to move, perhaps because the kids are close to graduating from high school. This is less common, but there are sometimes good reasons to keep the home.
No matter what you choose to do during your divorce, just make sure you know exactly what legal steps to take.