Looking for advise and realtor with divorce sale experience

[Jose Sanchez]

My parents are going through a divorce. That’s a little rocky. The court has made the decision to award my mom one of the two houses that they own and a second home that my father is going to have to sell in order to pay my mom pro portion of the divorce.

I’m looking for real estate advice on how to handle the sale of both properties for them.

We need to do this properly and looking for realtors that have this type of experience specifically I don’t want to get a realtor that has not handled this kind of transaction before since it is a little bit nuanced. Also, the properties are held in a revocable living trust.

The agent would be selling both properties if it is a good match, but we will start with the property that my father has to sell in order to pay my mother first before the divorce finalizes.

Any advice?

[Alex Willson]

I don't have a specific realtor recommendation for you, but you should be careful with the trust aspect. That's usually where things get messy. You need someone who won't mess up the distribution of funds once the sale closes, or it'll be a nightmare.

Honestly, before you even worry about finding an agent, make sure the legal groundwork is solid. Most high-end realtors won't even touch a listing like this until the trust and court orders are perfectly aligned, it's too much of a liability for them.

I went through something similar and it was a total circus until we got the paperwork sorted. We worked with Rebecca Gumaer, a divorce and family law attorney in Wheat Ridge, to handle the logistics on the trust side and it saved us so much time. I'd check with someone like her to see if the trust needs to be amended before a realtor starts showing the place; otherwise, you're going to run into major roadblocks at the finish line.