Co-Ownership of a Home with a Friend - How do I Get Out?

[Deletedusername]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota -USA

I live in a house that I own together with a friend. We bought it together but didn't really discuss what we'd do when we decide to sell. No legal agreements were created. So now that I'm engaged and need to get out from this co-ownership, what are my options to force him to either sell his half over to me or for us to put it on the market and sell it outright. Of course the value is now slightly under water as far as what we still owe on it. My father suggested a buy/sell agreement. He said with a buy/sell, I could present him with an offer to either buy it for the offer price or sell it to me for the same offer prioe. Granted, it's kinda backwards, since for me to take over full ownership of the home, I'd want him to pay me to leave. That's kinda the annoying part...
Thoughts?

[justalayman]

the only entity that can force anything is the courts and that would be a suit to partition. It will not be cheap and realistically, if you cannot sell the home, the courts will eventually auction it off for you and you will simply have to live with the result.

So, in other words, you did a bad thing and there is no easy way out. If neither is willing to agree to the other parties demands, you both might as well either learn to live with it as it is or plan on losing a lot of money selling it to a third party at a price you cannot control.

[ariastar]

LOL, you want the other person who co-owns this house to PAY you for the privilege of making you sole owner of the house he jointly bought? Are you nuts?! You should make him an offer on his half of the house rather than expect him to take a financial loss so you can have a major benefit. Where is he supposed to live?

If it's fair for you to expect him to pay you to leave, why don't you pay him instead and you leave?

[HomeGuru]

Good responses.