Selling a House During a Divorce in Texas Guide

Are you facing divorce and wondering how to sell your marital house in order to split your assets? You may want to put your house up for sale to comply with your divorce decree or to help pay for your costly legal fees and settle debts. Thankfully, at Hilltop Home Buyer, we understand that getting divorced and having to split all of your marital property can be stressful, especially if you have to become the seller of your marital estate in order to comply with the divorce papers. After all, how are you going to find a buyer for your house? As the seller, will you be able to sell it quickly? Will you get most of the cash, or will it go to fees and debts? The truth is that you don’t have to stress over being the seller of your beloved house or finding qualified buyers. A cash buyer can purchase your house quickly so that you can comply with the divorce settlement and put these trying times behind you.

Table of Contents

• How Does Selling Your House During a Divorce Work in Texas?
• Who Gets The House In a Divorce in Texas?
• Should I Sell Before or After Divorce?
• Who Gets to Stay in the House During Divorce in Texas?
• Alternatives to Selling During Divorce in Texas
• Divorce House Sale Texas Frequently Asked Questions
• Easiest Way To Sell A House During A Divorce In Texas

How Does Selling Your House During a Divorce Work in Texas?

Placing your marital property up for sale because of a divorce can be stressful and require many steps. First, you’ll need to find a divorce attorney. You’ll need to determine who the seller of the home is and who owns the property. After all, in order to place the property up for sale as the seller, you’ll need to own it. You’ll also need to research the property’s value. Then, you and your ex-spouse will need to decide how you want to sell the house. Next, you’ll need to find a buyer and close the deal. Finally, you’ll divide the proceeds of the house sale with your spouse and finish up the divorce process.

Step 1. Find a Divorce Attorney in Texas

If you want to be the seller of your marital house or joint investment properties before or during your divorce, you’ll need to find a good divorce lawyer. While most spouses hope they’ll have an uncontested divorce where they can agree on how to split all the assets as well as child custody, it’s possible that you and your ex-spouse may not entirely agree on the division of your marital property. In this instance, you may end up with a contested divorce, and certain issues may need to be settled with the help of an attorney. A lawyer, who is well-versed in the divorce laws in Texas, can help you navigate your way through the legal proceedings. They can help you negotiate a fair divorce settlement with your spouse. They can help you through the child custody process, and they can help you fill out and submit your divorce paperwork. To find a divorce attorney, you can ask for recommendations from family and friends. If you deal with other professionals, like financial advisors or CPAs, they may know of some good divorce attorneys. You can also search for divorce lawyers on the web and review their credentials.

Step 2:  Determine Who Owns the Real Estate

As part of your divorce, you’ll want to determine who owns the real estate. This is because you may each own your own properties and assets. Then, you’ll have what’s known as communal assets. These are assets that were acquired during the marriage. Communal assets will need to be split as part of the divorce agreement, and you or your spouse may need to become the seller of some of those marital assets. This is especially true if you own a primary house, one or more vacation houses or investment properties.

Step 3: Decide How You Want to Sell the Property

When you get divorced, you’ll most likely need to sell your marital house, and as the seller of the home, you need to know about the many home-selling options. One of the most popular ways that sellers who are experiencing divorce list properties for sale is by finding an experienced real estate agent, but this often comes with delays and fees. In order to avoid those fees as the seller, you can list your home as ‘for sale by owner’. You can also choose to place the home up for auction, which is a fast way to sell your home and possibly get a higher price if the buyers get into a bidding war. You can choose to sell it to an iBuyer, or you can find a cash-for-houses company. Each of these methods has its own pros and cons, and as the seller, you’ll need to decide the best way to proceed with the sale of your property in order to fulfill the requirements issued by the divorce court.

Step 4: Sell the House

Once you decide how you want to sell the house in order to comply with the terms of your divorce, you’ll need to find a qualified buyer. This can be someone who got in touch with you or your realtor. It can be an iBuyer, or it can be an investor paying in cash. It goes without saying that the fastest way to sell your home and split the assets after your divorce is to find a person or company that’s willing to buy your home in cash. This is helpful if you, as the seller, need to sell the home quickly in order to comply with the terms of your divorce. At Hilltop Home Buyer, we have the ability to close on houses within 21 days in most instances, and we take care of all the fees. This means that you’ll get your cash faster so that you can split it with your ex-spouse and move on to the next part of your life.

Step 5: Divide the Proceeds From the Sale

Once you have the money from the sale of your house, you need to divide the proceeds with your spouse in accordance with the divorce decree.

Who Gets the House in a Divorce in Texas?

During a divorce, assets, including houses, are often given a designation as either separate property or communal property. Separate property is typically considered to be assets that you or your spouse held prior to the marriage. It can also be gifts and inheritances that were acquired during the marriage. Communal property is considered to be assets that you acquired during your marriage, regardless of whose name is listed on the title or deed. If the house is considered communal property, the best course of action is to work out an agreement with your spouse. Otherwise, you may need to head to court in order to determine if the home can be sold and who can act as the seller.

Should I Sell Before or After the Divorce?

Whether you put your house up for sale before or after the divorce is up to you and your spouse. If you can both find places to live and agree that the house must be sold in order to help settle the divorce, you can put the house up for sale prior to the finalization of your divorce. If you can’t agree on the sale of the home, who should be the primary seller of the house, or if one of you wants to live in the home once the divorce is complete, you may have to wait for the judge’s decree before you finalize the plans for your marital dwelling.

Who Gets to Stay in the House During a Divorce in Texas?

It depends on your situation and your spouse’s situation. Ideally, you’d talk with your spouse to determine who gets to stay in the house during the divorce process. However, if you can’t decide, you may need the help of a judge. In Texas, it’s common for the spouse who has custody of the children to be allowed to remain in the home during the divorce proceedings. If you don’t have children, the spouse who is most likely to be able to afford the mortgage is usually allowed to remain in the home.

Alternatives to Selling During Divorce in Texas

If you and your spouse don’t want to sell your home, or if it doesn’t make financial sense to sell the home as part of your divorce, you do have other options. You can buy out your spouse, co-own the property, or divide the assets in a way that allows you or your spouse the ability to keep the home.

Co-Own the Property

Instead of placing the property up for sale as part of your divorce, you could opt to co-own the property, which means that both of your names remain on the title. Each person would own a certain amount of the home. If one spouse dies before the other, the surviving spouse would receive the entire house. Additionally, if the house were ever sold, the proceeds from that sale would be divided according to the co-ownership agreement.

Buy Out The Other Spouse

Instead of choosing to sell the property, one spouse can choose to buy out the other to fulfill the requirements of the divorce. This means that if the home has a value of $400,000 and each of you receives 50 percent of the home, one spouse can choose to buy out the other spouse by handing them $200,000.

Divide the Marital Assets

When you’re determining asset divisions as part of your divorce, you can make the property its own asset. If one spouse wants the house more than the other, the house can be given to them as part of their share of the marital property. The other spouse would be given other assets that are worth the value of the home. For example, if the couple owns a house, an RV, and a boat, one spouse may get the RV and boat while the other gets the house. It’s important to make sure that these resolutions are put into your divorce agreements so that they cannot be contested later.

Divorce House Sale Texas Frequently Asked Questions

If you plan to be the seller of your marital house, you probably have questions. After all, both you and your spouse own the home together. Thankfully, we’re here to answer your specific questions so that you can make the process of selling your home as hassle-free as possible.

Can I sell our marital house before the divorce has been finalized?

You can sell your marital house before the finalization of your divorce. However, if you can’t decide who should be the seller of the home or how to divide the cash from the sale of the house, you may need to get help from a judge. The judge presiding over your court case can help determine if you should sell the home before the divorce is final and how to divide the proceeds. In some instances, the funds from the sale of the home may need to be placed into an account and overseen by an executor until the divorce is final.

Is Texas a 50-50 divorce state?

Texas law does not decree that assets must be distributed 50/50 in a divorce. However, the judge presiding over your divorce case will strive for an equitable distribution. The court may start with a 50/50 distribution. However, other factors, such as the length of the marriage, the needs of the spouses, the financial independence of each party, the contributions of each party to the marriage, and the spouses’ conduct during the marriage, will factor into the division of assets.

If I sell my house as part of the divorce, do I have to pay capital gains tax?

If the house or property is distributed to the other spouse within a year of the divorce or as a part of the divorce settlement, it’s not likely that either of you will need to pay capital gains tax. However, if the home is sold to a buyer who isn’t you or your spouse, the IRS may decree that you pay capital gains tax. A tax attorney could help you determine if you owe capital gains on your newly sold home.

After the divorce is final, can I force my former partner to sell the house?

You, as the seller, cannot force your spouse to sell the house after the divorce. Instead, you’ll need to have a judge intervene to get a court order to list the home for sale.

Is it possible to sell the house if my ex-partner refuses?

If your ex-partner refuses to let you act as the seller or sell the house after the divorce, you’ll need to go in front of a judge and get a judgment in order to legally list the house for sale. You may also need a compelling reason, like the home is going into foreclosure, but a judge can order the home to be sold after your divorce.

Easiest Way to Sell a House During a Divorce in Texas

We understand that being the seller of your cherished marital house is emotional and stressful. You’ve had great memories in that home, and you’ve spent a lot of time in that house. You also want to get a fair price for your property, and you want to close the deal quickly. The good news is that you don’t have to get stuck in seller mode for months while you go through your divorce. We can help you reduce the stress and costs of putting your home up for sale. If you’re looking to sell your home as part of a divorce decree or to make it easier to split your marital assets, we can help. Our company buys homes for cash for any reason. We can also buy your home quickly. This is because we don’t need to wait on a lender. Instead, we have the money on hand to buy your home right now. This makes the process hassle-free and less costly than other methods. This is because we don’t charge any fees or real estate commissions.

If you have questions about selling your home for cash as part of your divorce, contact Hilltop Home Buyer. We pride ourselves on our professionalism, honesty, and transparency. We’ll buy your home as-is. You don’t need to make any repairs or clean it, and if there are items you don’t want, just leave them inside the house. We’ll deal with them after we buy your marital house.

We help sellers who are going through a divorce sell their marital properties quickly. We purchase all types of residential properties in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin, Texas. We buy mobile homes, condos, single-family homes, and luxury homes in cash. To get more information and start the process of selling your house for cash, give us a call at (833) 962-2274.

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