On homes and real estate: Making ownership clear

Q. My husband and I live in a house that I purchased 13 years ago. When he moved in, he made an extra lump sum mortgage payment to the principal of $30,000, which was equivalent to my equity in the house at that time. Of course that enabled us to pay down the mortgage more quickly, and we now own the house outright — or rather I do.

The deed still shows that I’m the sole owner. Is it possible to file a new deed showing the two of us as owners without proving any record of a financial transaction? Actually if we need it, there must be a record of his $30,000 contribution somewhere if we dig enough. And do we have to show someone our marriage certificate?

My concern is that if anything happens to me, he may lose the home. Also, it isn’t really fair the way it stands now. I feel bad that I overlooked this for so long.

A. You always have the right to sign a new deed, naming anyone you want as the new owner or co-owners.

You don’t have to prove anything about your husband’s investment in the property. Unless there are some family complications that I don’t know about, nobody will question what you do. No gift taxes are due on transactions between husband and wife.

Q. My parents share ownership of a home with my father’s sister (my aunt). The house was converted to three apartments — one my parents reside in, one is a rental, and my aunt resides in the other.

My parents are very committed to selling and moving to Florida. My aunt has agreed to selling, but she has high profit expectations and has told my parents that she cannot consider an offer less than what I consider to be a pretty ludicrous amount.

My parents are not getting any younger (they are 73 and 75). They cannot really sit out the market for what could be a couple years to get the price that my aunt says she needs to consider the sale. They want to move before the winter and be settled. They need the capital from the sale of the house for the move as their savings is pretty small right now.

Maybe my aunt could buy my parents out. This seems to me to be the most viable option, and I am going north to help my parents make the pitch to my aunt. I assume we would first need to settle on a fair buyout amount. Should we have the house appraised? Or can we go by the tax collector’s records? I am sure my aunt would need to “finance” the buyout. What is the best way to handle that?

A. As your aunt has a pretty high estimate for the value of the property, your folks could agree and set the buyout at half that figure! In any event, if your aunt seeks a mortgage to buy out her partners, the lending institution will do its own appraisal to see how much the property is really worth.

A tax assessment is seldom a reliable estimate for sale price. Although I suppose if both parties agreed to use that figure, they could. You can get informal estimates of market value from nearby real estate brokers. And if you run into one you feel confidence in, you might hire that broker, perhaps by the hour, to help negotiate a written sales agreement and guide your aunt in obtaining financing.

If they want to get nasty, your folks have the right to get a court-ordered auction sale of the property. That doesn’t usually yield full true value, though.

But if your aunt is willing to take on responsibility for handling new tenants, perhaps your folks could just move out and rent something in Florida for now.

Q. I am considering refinancing my mortgage to a 15-year fixed rate to be closer to paying off the loan by retirement. Would I be better off making additional payments toward the principle with my current loan or going through a refinancing?

A. You’ll pay a lower rate of interest on a new 15-year loan, but you’ll have the upfront costs of refinancing. So you have to calculate which way saves you more money.

The answer involves all sorts of numbers — interest rate on your present loan, rate on the new one, number of years left on your present mortgage, how quickly you’d be paying it off and amount of closing costs on a new loan. If you have a friend who’s good with figures, talk it over. Or consult a CPA after you gather all the numbers involved.

Ÿ Edith Lank will respond to questions sent to her at 240 Hemingway Drive, Rochester, N.Y. 14620 (include a stamped return envelope), or readers may email her through askedith.com.

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