When you go through a divorce in Illinois, you will undoubtedly need to untangle many elements of your life from that of your ex, and part of the process will inevitably involve dividing up shared assets and debts. For many people working their way through divorces, their homes are the biggest asset with which they will need to contend, and if you have built up equity in your home over the course of your marriage, you will need to figure out how to divide it.
According to NerdWallet, before you can figure out how to divide up the equity you have in your home with your ex, you will need to determine exactly how much you have in equity to divide. To do so, you will need to get an appraisal, and in some situations, it may benefit you to get two so that the information you get is more likely to be accurate and reliable.
Once you have a sense of how much equity you have in your home, you can move forward with figuring out how to split it up. Often, the easiest, cleanest way to do so simply involves placing the home up for sale, and then splitting any proceeds you make on it between you once it sells.
In other cases, though, the market conditions may not be working in your favor, and you may think it wise to hold off before placing your home on the market. If your financial or emotional situation allows, you may choose to have the two of you both remain in the home until you are more likely to make good money on the sale.
A third option for dividing home equity amid divorce involves having one party keep the home while the other moves elsewhere. In most cases, this will involve having the party looking to remain in the house refinance the mortgage so that he or she is the only person listed on it.
This information about your options as far as dividing home equity in divorce is meant for educational purposes and is not a replacement for legal advice.
