What Are the Benefits of Keeping Your Marital Home in a Divorce?

 Posted on July 09, 2020 in Property Division

The marital home is often one of the most prized possessions during a divorce. Being able to keep the home can be a huge win if both spouses want it. However, getting the home also has consequences that may make it less desirable to own. Some divorcees willingly give up their homes or agree to sell them. What are the advantages and disadvantages of getting the marital home in your divorce? Knowing this may determine your strategy for the division of property and other financial issues in your divorce.

The Advantages

Firstly, it is beneficial to have control over a marital property as valuable as a home. You may have already invested time and money into picking out your “dream home” and remodeling it the way you like. You do not know how much it would cost to purchase a similar home and whether you would like it as much as your current home. If your current home is not in your long-term plans, there is still the possibility that it could appreciate in value and earn you more in an eventual sale than you would receive in the divorce.

Children can also be a major factor in whether you want to keep the home. Your children would benefit from being able to live at least part of the time in the home that they are familiar with. They could continue to attend the same schools and see the same friends.

The Disadvantages

Finances are often the biggest disadvantage to owning the marital home after a divorce. You need to consider:

• Whether you can afford to pay a mortgage, property taxes, utilities, and maintenance for the home
• What other marital properties you will need to give your spouse in order to keep the home
• Whether the value of your home is worth the cost of keeping it.

Some divorcees determine that owning the home does not fit within their budget, even if they receive spousal maintenance. Others may have valuable marital properties that they need to protect, such as their business. If you are an empty nester or never had children, you may decide that the size and cost of the home are bigger than what you need for living on your own.

Contact a St. Charles, Illinois, Divorce Lawyer

Whether to keep your marital home is a major decision in your divorce and will require research into its property value and expenses related to the home. A Kane County divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group will make sure you are prepared to make a wise decision. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

Source:

https://www.zillow.com/sellers-guide/divorce-selling-house/