Should You Keep or Sell the Family Home?

Attorneys in DuPage County for Handling the Marital Home in an Older Divorce

When a couple who is over the age of 50 gets divorced, the entire process can be extremely stressful. Divorce is challenging at any age, but for those who are older, the thought of rebuilding a new life is often frightening and overwhelming. If this describes your situation and how you are feeling, you might not even know where to begin. Fortunately, you do not have to navigate the divorce process on your own. The experienced and compassionate attorneys at Goostree Law Group have the resources and tools to help you make even the toughest divorce-related decisions, including what should happen to the home that you and your spouse may have shared for many years.

The Family Home Is a Unique Asset

Dividing marital assets is nearly always a major consideration in divorce, but specific assets are often treated with a certain degree of importance. In many divorces—especially cases involving older spouses—the marital home is a source of disagreement. While it is true that a home is usually a significant asset, strictly from a financial perspective, your marital home is probably much more than that to you.

Depending on how long you have lived there, your home may have substantial sentimental value in addition to its monetary value. After all, the home may be the setting for countless memories involving your children, extended family, and loved ones. It is impossible to place a dollar value on the experiences you had in your family home. At Goostree Law Group, we understand why you might want to stay in the family home after your divorce, but we also know that doing so might not be financially feasible.

Property Division Counsel in Naperville

If you want to keep your marital home in your divorce, there are many factors to consider. For example, you need to make sure that you can afford the home on your own. This means that you can keep up on mortgage payments, property taxes, and general upkeep associated with owning a home. You might also need to have the mortgage and the title transferred into your name alone. Depending on your income and available resources, securing the mortgage in your name could be challenging, but our lawyers can help you understand your options.

It is also important to remember that Illinois law provides that marital property is to be divided equitably in a divorce. In order to keep your family home, you will probably need to allow your spouse to have a relatively larger portion of the remaining marital assets. For many older couples, such an arrangement may not be possible, especially if the family home is the only large asset. In cases like this, the best course of action may be to sell the home and to divide the proceeds of the sale between the spouses.

The sale of the marital home can open the door to many disagreements and financial challenges including coming to an agreement on a realtor and listing price, accepting an offer, disagreements about repairs prior to placing the home on the market and after an inspection and many more.

The skilled attorneys at Goostree Law Group will help you conduct a full analysis of your situation. From there, we will assist you in finding a resolution that meets your needs. We know how important your marital home is to you, and we will do everything we can to help you keep it or if selling it is the best avenue, making sure all issues are addressed for a smooth sale.

Call 630-634-5050 Today

For more information about managing your marital home in your older Illinois divorce, contact our office. Call 630-634-5050 for a free consultation with one of the compassionate lawyers at Goostree Law Group today. We represent clients in Wheaton, Naperville, St. Charles, Geneva, DuPage County, Kane County, Kendall County, and the surrounding areas.