Spouse signature required for real estate investment?

[RiverGirl]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina

While a resident of Virginia I was able to buy and sell real estate without the signature of my spouse. My transactions were handled by an attorney so I hope that things were done properly.

I am now living in North Carolina and want to resume my investment activities. I have been given conflicting information regarding my spouse's required involvement in my transactions. I will be doing business in NC and in other states as well, mostly TN to start. My assumption is that the state of residence determines matters such as this. I prefer to NOT have my spouse involved in my real estate investments, not because I want to hide things from him but just because he is such a pain to deal with and could easily blow deals for me (he's 70 years old - I'm 44.)

If I am required to have his signature on all deals, would investing through a corporation make a difference? I am open to other suggestions as well.

Thanks!

[pojo2]

Real cute, ask your Atty.

Whose money you using?

[acmb05]

Originally Posted by RiverGirl

What is the name of your state? North Carolina

While a resident of Virginia I was able to buy and sell real estate without the signature of my spouse. My transactions were handled by an attorney so I hope that things were done properly.

I am now living in North Carolina and want to resume my investment activities. I have been given conflicting information regarding my spouse's required involvement in my transactions. I will be doing business in NC and in other states as well, mostly TN to start. My assumption is that the state of residence determines matters such as this. I prefer to NOT have my spouse involved in my real estate investments, not because I want to hide things from him but just because he is such a pain to deal with and could easily blow deals for me (he's 70 years old - I'm 44.)

If I am required to have his signature on all deals, would investing through a corporation make a difference? I am open to other suggestions as well.

Thanks!

You are not required to have his signature on anything unless he is on the deed of the home or property. If you can buy it on your own then you do not have to have him on it at all.

[RiverGirl]

Originally Posted by pojo2

Real cute, ask your Atty.

Whose money you using?

Cute? I suppose cuteness is in the eye of the beholder. I will ask an attorney at some point if necessary, just trying to get some general guidelines here.

And as to whose money I am using -
Anyone's I can get for a good rate! Not that it has anything to do with my question, but I use several different but typical methods of funding my investments. None of these take a dime out of spouse's pocket, if that is what you are implying.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by acmb05

You are not required to have his signature on anything unless he is on the deed of the home or property. If you can buy it on your own then you do not have to have him on it at all.

Would you like to rethink this answer?

[RiverGirl]

Originally Posted by acmb05

You are not required to have his signature on anything unless he is on the deed of the home or property. If you can buy it on your own then you do not have to have him on it at all.

That is how I worked it before, but a potential investment partner here in NC is squeemish about it. Perhaps I'll just look for another partner.

Thanks for your speedy response.

[acmb05]

Originally Posted by BelizeBreeze

Would you like to rethink this answer?

Nope. If you are saying she is required to have her spouse on the deed, Please point out where that is. I never had my wife on our deed or any of the paperwork in NC. Never had to.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by acmb05

Nope. If you are saying she is required to have her spouse on the deed, Please point out where that is. I never had my wife on our deed or any of the paperwork in NC. Never had to.

You made an absolute statement that has no legal support. This is NOT a legal question but one that needs to be asked of the Mortgage/lending company holding the mortgage.

[RiverGirl]

Originally Posted by acmb05

Nope. If you are saying she is required to have her spouse on the deed, Please point out where that is. I never had my wife on our deed or any of the paperwork in NC. Never had to.

While living in NC, did you ever purchase property in another state, such as your current state of TN? I ask because I wonder if I would go by NC law because of residency, or if TN law would come into play because the property is located there. I think what I have in mind would be community property states, which may not even be the case in either of these. However, I will potentially be buying property in other states at some point, so I'm just trying to plan ahead for that day. My thinking is that property, as it would apply to matters such as divorce (which I am not considering) would be based on residency and not location of property. But of course I may be way off base with that.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by RiverGirl

While living in NC, did you ever purchase property in another state, such as your current state of TN? I ask because I wonder if I would go by NC law because of residency, or if TN law would come into play because the property is located there. I think what I have in mind would be community property states, which may not even be the case in either of these. However, I will potentially be buying property in other states at some point, so I'm just trying to plan ahead for that day. My thinking is that property, as it would apply to matters such as divorce (which I am not considering) would be based on residency and not location of property. But of course I may be way off base with that.

Any property purchased during the marriage with community funds is community property. The prevailing law would be where the divorce is filed. HOWEVER, a mistake most people make is assuming that such monies invested, although they were solely earned by one spouse, are not community funds.

In a marital property state, funds from inheritance, gift or those funds brount into the marriage, SO LONG AS THEY ARE NOT CONVERTED, remain separate property. However, in your current situation, if you used marital funds (funds not listed above) to purchase your first property then rolled those profits into each successive transaction, each and every property you have purchased or plan to purchase is marital property. regardless of where the property lies.

[RiverGirl]

Originally Posted by BelizeBreeze

You made an absolute statement that has no legal support. This is NOT a legal question but one that needs to be asked of the Mortgage/lending company holding the mortgage.

I believe that this certainly has potential legal implications. Isn't there something about property acquired after a marriage having some kind of joint interest? Would there be a need to be sure that the title is clear of any interest my spouse could claim? And again, would buying and selling through a corporation make all of that concern a moot point?

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by RiverGirl

I believe that this certainly has potential legal implications. Isn't there something about property acquired after a marriage having some kind of joint interest? Would there be a need to be sure that the title is clear of any interest my spouse could claim? And again, would buying and selling through a corporation make all of that concern a moot point?

Read my last response. Simply having ONLY one spouse's name on the deed does NOT translate to separate property. And neither will you be protected by the formation of a corporation during the marriage.

[RiverGirl]

Originally Posted by BelizeBreeze

Read my last response. Simply having ONLY one spouse's name on the deed does NOT translate to separate property. And neither will you be protected by the formation of a corporation during the marriage.

I understand what you are saying about separate/community property. If the real estate investments were transacted through a corp that I owned, wouldn't I be free to transact on behalf of the corp without his involvement? He would be entitled to his community share of the corp because of my ownership, but would not be required to be involved in the day-to-day business of the corp.
When I was involved in real estate investment in Virginia everything was through a corporation, with no involvement whatsoever from him. But that has been several years ago and laws change.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by RiverGirl

I understand what you are saying about separate/community property. If the real estate investments were transacted through a corp that I owned, wouldn't I be free to transact on behalf of the corp without his involvement? He would be entitled to his community share of the corp because of my ownership, but would not be required to be involved in the day-to-day business of the corp.
When I was involved in real estate investment in Virginia everything was through a corporation, with no involvement whatsoever from him. But that has been several years

Again, this has not as much to do with corporate law as it does each individual transaction's lien holder. ANYONE can buy and sell just about anything without their spouse's signature if the lien holder agrees to such.

That does not, however, negate property settlement statutes of the filing state nor the probate code should you die before him.

[BelizeBreeze]

FURTHERMORE: If you are going to invest time, money and energy into this undertaking, the first investment I would advise is to see the advice of a local real estate attorney in your area.