Court ordered house sale...

[Ohiogal]

If the agreement to pay you over ten years is entered and made a court order there is no issue. It could be an addendum to the divorce decree. is the amount he offered fair? If it is, AND he will refinance to get you off the mortgage, then that is not an issue AT ALL.

 

[LdiJ]

MARITAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
PROPERTY
3. Marital Residence: The residence located at [address] shall be placed on the market no later than 7 days from entry of this agreement. The parties agree to use Sandy Pressley as the Realtor. Husband shall continue to live in the house until it is sold. Husband shall be solely responsible for the mortgate payments and reasonable upkeep on the residence until it is sold. The cost of any repairs or improvements recommended by the agent shall be agreed upon in advance and shared equally by the parties. The proceeds from the sale of the house shall be split equally between the parties after the mortgage and cost of closing are paid.

That's it. Proceeds are split equally after mortgage and closing costs. Nothing about my equity ends at time of divorce.

It makes sense that the equity stops at the time of divorce tho.... I honestly hadn't thought of that because that's not what it says. It doesn't say that anywhere. But that would be the right thing to do, huh. Hmm. Maybe that could be a negotiating point? Say I'm willing to accept equity as of time of divorce versus waiting and waiting and therefore accruing more equity?

He offered a buyout and I counteroffered. He rejected the counteroffer by ignoring it and just telling the realtor to continue the listing. When I sent a letter saying 'you know what, I want to be done, so lets do it,' he replied with "you rejected it so its no longer valid. But I'll pay you monthly payments for ten years." I haven't replied to that, and that's why I'm here with you all -- trying to sort it out and get a good idea. I don't want to be the greedy bitchy ex-wife (I'm not that type of person at all). My reason for being here is not to get the most I can get; my reason for being here IS so that I don't get screwed over royally.

As to my question(s) above, the equity hasn't increased that much between the divorce and now. Not considering potential changes in market value, of course.

But it has been gaining equity based on the principal being paid down. Since you have so much equity in the house, that tends to indicate that you have owned it for quite some time, which tends to indicate that a high percentage of the payment is going towards principal.

If he refinances to lower the payment, then quite a bit of the payment that was going towards equity will be going directly into his pocket, and very little of his new payments will be going towards equity.

He should be refinancing for enough to buy out your share of the equity, not just for enough to refinance the existing mortgage.

You REALLY need to be taking this issue back to court. If he refinances the mortgage to bring down the payment he will have even less motivation to sell, and more motivation to keep the cheap housing.

 

[ZmansGirl09]

I spent the rest of the day looking up attorneys in New Mexico. I found one that specifically works with out of state clients, that should be interesting.

As always, money is the issue when it comes to law. Law is not black and white -- its green. Ex has very large resources. I have paycheck to paycheck still. But I'm gonna see what I can do. I don't want this to go to court. I just don't want to get run over like roadkill, if I can help it.

Thank you, everyone, for being so helpful. I really appreciate the time you took with me today. VERY VERY much. Thank you.