When a Loved One Dies

There is nothing worse than dealing with the loss of a precious loved one. Unfortunately, however, when someone dies, there are still estate matters to be taken care of. If this has happened to you and you are now faced with a left-behind home in your name, you have several different options. Ideally, you should have worked out a plan for what to do with the home ahead of time, but since this isn’t always possible, there are still things you can do to help deal with the matter quickly and correctly during your time of grieving.    

First of all, you’ll want to determine if you are the only owner of the home. A lot of times, homes are left to multiple family members. If this is the case, and you wish to buy the home, you can buy the part of the property you do not own providing the other owners are in agreeance.  If you do decide to go this route, it’s smart to have the home looked at by a professional appraiser so that you can work out and ultimately pay a fair price.

Even if you don’t have all of the money to pay for the remaining parts of the home on your own, you can always try and qualify for a mortgage loan. There are also other ways to borrow the necessary money, such as working out an agreement or a deeded interest with the other party or parties concerned.

Do keep in mind, though, that other parties concerned do have the right to file partition actions, which would make it so that a judge would set a fair price for the house and so that you would have to buy the other owner’s share or agree to sell the home at the court-approved price and split the profits.

Typically, though, it’s usually faster, easier, and just all around better to work something out with the other parties concerned, so keep this in mind as you make arrangements for the home left to you and possibly others.