Workflow

5103 South Sheridan Road
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145

Selling Homes

I’m in the middle of a bad divorce. How Do I Sell My House?

Fair Offer Fast, Team

Going through a divorce brings on extreme emotions, and having to deal with selling a home is one of the last things you’d want.

“I try to teach people to think with their brain not their heart,” says Laurel Starks, divorce real estate expert and author of Divorcing the House: A Guide to Understanding Your Options, the Pitfalls & Whether You Could-or Should-Keep Your Home in Divorce. She also is owner of Starks Realty Group in Southern California.  

“This is a business decision, and the decisions you make now will affect your future. How you rebound from this divorce is directly related to the decisions you make when you are in the divorce,” she adds.

In many of the contentious divorces she has been involved in, the marital home can become a source of revenge, strife and sometimes financial ruin. That once important financial asset to the couple now becomes a chess piece.

But Starks has given advice to thousands of couples and teaches lawyers and real estate agents that it doesn’t have to become a tug-of-war.

The sale of a house usually comes because one of the two involved can’t afford it. The same income that went to support one household is now going to two households, and the cost of divorce can be outlandish.

The cost isn’t limited to lawyers’ fees. One spouse has to find new furniture. You no longer qualify for your cell phone’s family plan. Someone has to find a health insurance plan. The list goes on and on, and the expenses can pile up.

Here is Starks’ best advice for those selling a house during a divorce to give people an idea of how to come out of it financially OK and ready for their new life:

See what today’s rates are.

Take care of yourself

Through all the court dates, the doubts and the anger, self-care will become very important. You need your strength and best wits about you. You also need to believe that your best days are ahead, she says.

“Believe that this too shall pass. For me to have a client call me two or three years later, I sometimes don’t’ even recognize them as a person. All that toxic hell they were living through is over.”

Don’t be married to the house

Starks does not advocate remaining married to the mortgage. If one person can’t refinance the mortgage, then sell the property.

You are paying a lawyer to be smart for you, but some lawyers and even judges think that if you sign off on the title then you are signing off on the mortgage. That is not true, she says.

Don’t sabotage your own profits

Many times, one spouse does not want to sell the house, but there is a court order to do so. That anger causes the devil to come out and ruin parts of the house – or they sabotage an open house by not keeping the house clean.
“One time, we had to have the wife evicted during the escrow process. She sabotaged the sale, and now the court is sanctioning her. She has to pay her husband’s attorney fees now. It’s just dumb,” Starks says.

Do your own investigation

Starks has seen in many divorces where the spouses themselves don’t know who is on the deed or if there are any judgments or liens against the house – including from the IRS. You need to find out all that stuff including the balance on the mortgage.

Contact Us at Fair Offer Fast

We buy homes in any condition. Fair cash offer within 24 hours. No inspection, appraisal, or closing cost. Stress-Free. Let us Help You!