Why would you jointly own a home after divorce?

Most people who get divorced decide to sell their house. If they own the home together, this is the easiest option. For one thing, this gets them both off of the joint mortgage that they signed together. For another, it means that they earn money in the sale of the home and so they can easily divide that financial asset.

However, there are rare cases in which two people will decide that they’re going to keep owning their home together. Why would they do this?

They want to sell at a later date

Generally speaking, the reason is not that they don’t want to sell the house. It’s just that they don’t want to sell it at the same time that they get divorced. They decide to continue owning it together until it’s time to make that sale, and then they split up the proceeds at that point.

For example, say that you have two children who are in high school. You may not want to make them move out of the house that they’ve lived in their entire lives. Parents will continue to own the home, perhaps even sharing custody by moving in and out of that house, until the children go to college.

Another reason could be purely financial. Maybe the local housing market is down right now and you don’t want to sell at a loss. Keeping the house together gives the market a chance to go back up so that you can make a profit.

Working out the details of your divorce

Owning a home after you get divorced can be complicated. Be sure that you carefully think about the details and all of the legal options at your disposal.