Legalese of Real Estate During a Divorce

NC Realtors released an article to break down and summarize the legalese of real estate transactions about divorces. Here is a snippet from their article: 

“Here are a few things REALTORS® should understand and know about situations:

• As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to selling property, a spouse whose name is not on the deed still needs to be involved in the process.

• If someone buys property in their own name alone, either before or after they are married, the nonowner spouse must be involved in the paperwork if the spouse who owns it later decides to sell it. “The non-owner spouse has certain potential inheritance rights arising out of the marriage,” Martin says. But having that other spouse sign the listing agreement, the sales contract and the deed has nothing to do with the division of proceeds of the sale of the property. “It is to release the inheritance rights they have so the spouse who owns the property can convey ‘good’ title under the Real Property Laws,” he adds. “Once divorced, that person wouldn’t have any inheritance rights under the law.”

• If the property is jointly owned and the divorce is amicable, one of them can give the other power of attorney to authorize the broker to deal with just one of them with making mundane decisions in connection with the transaction. “Not all divorces are acrimonious,” Martin says.

• If the property is owned by one spouse and the divorce is amicable, a free trader agreement would give the owner spouse the right to sell the property without the involvement of the non-owner spouse. A free trader agreement is, in basic terms, a document prepared for the purposes of waiving each spouse’s rights as to real estate and creating a right to buy and sell real estate independent of the other. This can be done in a premarital agreement, antenuptial agreement, or a separation agreement.”

Article: https://www.ncrealtors.org/working-with-divorcing-couples/