moving in to her dad's house

[balgamannan]

California
My fiancee's parents were planning to sell their house soon and buy a new one, but are now thinking about letting us take over the house instead. What's the best way to go about this? Some options we've thought about are: keeping the house in her dad's name and renting from him, transferring title to just her and having her pay the mortgage (I would help, but not appear on the title), wiating until we're married and doing the same...there are a lot of important decisions we need to make, and just don't know where to begin. What's the best option for everyone? Thanks!

 

[loku]

You were right to post this question under estate planning, because that is what it is. The best way to handle this depends on the overall needs of your fiancée’s parents and what they want to accomplish. Do they want you to be sure to keep the house out of their taxable estate at death? (basically, that would be a consideration for married couples with net assets valued at over $1,350,000) Do they want to have you pay market value for the house? Would your fiancée be able to get credit for a mortgage? Would her parents be willing to co-sign for her on credit? These are some of the circumstances to be considered.

In other words, there are a lot of options, but they have to be tailored to the results your fiancée's parents and you want.

I suggest you either post their objectives on this board so we can try and be of more help, or engage an attorney, familiar with estate planning.