cjohnson1120
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Dakota
My parent own a cattle ranch in western South Dakota that has been in the family for 4 generations. My fathers physical and mental health is fairly poor so I have been running the ranch for the last 2 years. My parents have recently told me that they would like to start deeding the ranch to me. They currently have a substantial amount of debt against it. What I would like to do, is continue to operate and manage the ranch until the debt is paid off which I think I could accomplish in 4-5 years, then have my parents deed it to me. I would then give my parents a set amount of money per year to take care of them while they are still alive. The problem is that my fathers mental health continues to get worse and I am afraid that if he was out of the equation my mother may have different ideas of what should happen with the ranch. This would be a horrible shame since the men in my family have worked very hard making the ranch what it is and have always done so with the intent of passing it on and keeping it is the family, which is my intent. So is there a way to create a binding contract that my mother and father could sign now that would lay out these terms. I have thought of just doing a contract for deed for the amount of their debt that needs to be paid off but I don't know how that would work or if I would need to borrow the money and pay off the debt then have them deed it to me. Or maybe we could just redo the loan in my name and then transfer the land at the same time. I am pretty lost. Just wondering what the best option would be to guarantee transfer of the land without having to pay the state a huge amount in sales tax.
My parent own a cattle ranch in western South Dakota that has been in the family for 4 generations. My fathers physical and mental health is fairly poor so I have been running the ranch for the last 2 years. My parents have recently told me that they would like to start deeding the ranch to me. They currently have a substantial amount of debt against it. What I would like to do, is continue to operate and manage the ranch until the debt is paid off which I think I could accomplish in 4-5 years, then have my parents deed it to me. I would then give my parents a set amount of money per year to take care of them while they are still alive. The problem is that my fathers mental health continues to get worse and I am afraid that if he was out of the equation my mother may have different ideas of what should happen with the ranch. This would be a horrible shame since the men in my family have worked very hard making the ranch what it is and have always done so with the intent of passing it on and keeping it is the family, which is my intent. So is there a way to create a binding contract that my mother and father could sign now that would lay out these terms. I have thought of just doing a contract for deed for the amount of their debt that needs to be paid off but I don't know how that would work or if I would need to borrow the money and pay off the debt then have them deed it to me. Or maybe we could just redo the loan in my name and then transfer the land at the same time. I am pretty lost. Just wondering what the best option would be to guarantee transfer of the land without having to pay the state a huge amount in sales tax.