Posted by John Merchant on April 16, 2009 at 17:49:24:
These intra-family deals have a way of quickly souring and causing lots of trouble for all concerned.
So I’d advise you to hire a lawyer to work it through for you and make sure all is legal and done right.
Or I’ll predict you’ll soon regret your failure to do so.
I once got a call from local woman who had just received a nice letter from her older sister 4 or 5 states away.
The older sister was generously offering to buy my client’s half interest for $5,000 cash.
It sounded kind of low to me so I did some checking with a RE agent in that town and learned the house was worth about $75,000.
So I advised my client to hold out for actual value, which she did, and I got her an additional $30,000.
Seems the loving older sister had already found a buyer and had the money practically in hand but thought she might as well cheat her younger sister while she was at it.