So we held the class "Shacking Up: Tips For Non-married Persons Buying a House Together in Texas" Wednesday at the Keller Williams Lake Travis (Austin, TX) Market Center and wanted to follow up with a few notes. It was a panel discussion including a Realtor (me), a lender (Jan Hill, WR Starkey Mortgage) and an attorney (Latra Szal, Gracy Title).
First, and keep this in mind if you teach on this topic or any topic that gets legal or into tax discussions, that this topic can vary significantly by state and the individuals situation and here's the big ol disclosure: As licensed Realtors, financial advisors, mortgage brokers, we cannot give legal advice. We encourage you to discuss the details of your situation with appropriately licensed attorneys, financial and tax advisors.
A few point to pass on:
- Define Non-married Persons - this can be a gay couple, two friends buying property together, a mother/daughter team, a straight engaged couple not yet married but purchasing before they get married
- Even if the non-married couple puts various legal documents (a will, specifically) in place to address how the property would be handled in the case of break-up or death, there still may be a capital gain situation ... you may think that the property will just go to your partner because that is your intent and you may very well have thoroughly covered that in your professionally drafted will, but there still may be a capital gain situation. Talk to your CPA.
- Handwritten will vs. Professionally drafted - your family may have approved of the relationship while you were alive because they were polite, but now that you're gone (God rest your soul) they are behaving differently ... people behave badly in times of grief (and when money is involved). The point: make your will as uncontestable as possible.
See the following link for the original post: http://activerain.com/blogsview/868766/Shacking-Up-Tips-For-Non-married-Persons-Buying-a-House-Together-in-Texas
We are working on getting this class set up for MCE credit. Stay tuned.
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