In Divorce, at least three different areas will need to agree upon, Property (ie; houses, cars, furniture), Debt, and children.  The court may issue Child support orders. 

Calculate your Child support payments. 

We will work closely with both attorneys and mediators to help determine the value of one of your most valuable assets. 

That is why being fully informed about your house and doing all the homework is vital. 

We are Experts on Divorce and Real Estate 

Sometimes we want to keep the house for emotional reasons or because of the children. We want to help you make informed decisions when it comes to the house. 

We want what is best for you. You can keep the house if you know all the risks and are comfortable with those risks. 

Find out about the risks Today!

Community property is everything that the spouses own together. Generally, that includes all property acquired during the marriage except property received by inheritance or gifts from separate property owned before marriage.

Community property is all property bought during the marriage with income received during the marriage. 

Separate property is any property that you or your spouse owned before the marriage or that you received during the marriage as a gift or inheritance. 

Our help extends across six different zones of risk; The Mortgage, Title, The Value of the Home, Mechanic Liens, Insurance, and Condition of the Property. We will help guide you down whichever path is best for you. It does not matter whether you plan on selling or staying put in your current home we can help you make informed decisions.

Watch our Divorce Videos

Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) shows the prices of comparable sales of homes in your neighborhood and is a starting point for the best sales price of your home. We take the CMA along with other information about your house to help determine the top market price at which we would market the property.  The Gifford Group can answer the question, What is my house worth?

Yes, a current CMA is a priceless piece of information that we would recommend in every Divorce situation. We can provide the CMA for free to our clients. 

 Well, it depends. First, there must be no court-imposed restrictions. Also, if you need child or spousal support income to qualify for a new loan – you’ll need to wait. Otherwise, a pre-divorce purchase can be a great option.

NOTE: When purchasing a new home while still legally married, keep in mind that your spouse will be required to sign a Quitclaim Deed prior to closing. This will allow you to claim sole title to the new property. But you should likely be signing a Special warranty Deed instead. 

Read more Divorce and Mortgage Questions

The three options but first Know if you can afford it?

•   Refinance before filing for divorce - If you refinance before you file, you report that you’re still married 

•  Refinance while separated - Lenders may not be able to help since they can’t know for sure what your monthly debts will be.  

• Refinance after finalizing the divorce - In many divorces, one of the parties will have to pay alimony, maintenance or child support. To a mortgage lender, these payments are viewed as a monthly obligation, like a car payment. When trying to refinance, this will be included in your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, which affects your new rates.  

Read our blog post on Can I Buy a House before my Divorce is Final?

 This is where the Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) will be created. The divorce decree must order that these assets will be divided. The court then must approve the QDRO and the order must be passed to the administrator of each retirement account. 

Read our Blog Post on QDROs

Check out our Divorce Videos

The Gifford Group

Real Estate Advisors

 Standard Child Support in Texas Guidelines. 

BASED ON THE MONTHLY NET RESOURCES OF THE OBLIGOR. 

1 child     =     20% of Obligor's Net Resources

2 children =   25% of Obligor's Net Resources

3 children =   30% of Obligor's Net Resources

4 children =   35% of Obligor's Net Resources

5 children  =  40% of Obligor's Net Resources

6+ children  =  Not less than the amount for 5 children

See The Monthly Child Support Calculator

See Texas Family Code Chapter 154.125(c).

Multiple Family Adjusted Guidelines.

What is Alimony? 

Alimony is a payment that one spouse makes to the other during and/or after the Divorce Process. In Texas, the court calls these payments "spousal maintenance" or "maintenance." 

You can use our Divorce Alimony Calculator below to calculator the total maintenance support you will receive and for how many years?

How much is spousal support in Texas?  There is no formula to tell you how much spousal maintenance you will be awarded. An award for maintenance cannot exceed $5000 per month or 20% of the spouse's gross income (whichever is less).  

 We have made a Calculator to that show net proceeds calculator. 

You can count on us to guide you through the process and make the process as easy as possible if you are looking to sell. 

We have taken the time to calculate all the fees associated with selling your home. Please let us know if you have any questions. 

A surviving spouse does not automatically inherit half of a married person's community property when the person's children are not his or her children. If one of the spouses dies, a married couple may agree in writing that all or part of the community property will go to the surviving spouse. 

This is known as a right of survivorship agreement. Survivorship agreements must be filed with the county court records of the couple's residence. Married couples can use this to make sure that all community property cited in the agreement automatically passes to the surviving spouse without having to go to probate court.

Read more about Community Property

Do you need an Appraisal or a Comparative Market Analysis when you are divorcing? What's the difference?

A licensed appraiser's appraisal or a real estate professional's CMA are the two most common methods of determining a real property's value. 

But how do they differ?  

These are two different opinions of value, and neither of them will ever give you the exact same opinion of price, just as no two people value anything the same.  It's all about perspective.

 In a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), a licensed real estate professional evaluates what a property could possibly sell for in the current real estate market in order to determine its current value. 

Get you free CMA Done today. 

Appraisals are completed by licensed residential appraisers who use recent comparable home sales data to determine a home's value. Even though licensed appraisers use a similar method to a real estate agent's CMA, unlike a real estate agent, they should have no vested interest in its sale. 

(Although they work for the bank that is making the loan, so there is that) 

Expect to pay around $500-$600 for an Appraisal.  

How does a mortgage company value real property when mortgage financing is needed? 

An independent appraisal from a licensed appraiser is necessary if a mortgage is needed to refinance a marital home. A lender cannot use an appraisal ordered by the homeowner or attorney for settlement purposes. If the valuation was already established during the settlement process and an equity buy-out is needed, this may cause problems since the values can be significantly different.  

Note, A lender cannot use an appraisal ordered by the homeowner or attorney for settlement purposes.

 One of the most powerful tools to help "buy out" your spouse is what is called an Owelty Lien.   

As we go through life, we learn that not everything is easy or straight forward as we original thought. 

Getting your name off a Deed of Trust is possible but getting your name of the mortgage without refinancing, not so much! Let's learn why.   

Your lender may not release a spouse from the mortgage obligation following the divorce  

Mortgage companies often consider two incomes when qualifying a borrower for a loan. Neither party may qualify for the loan alone because it is based on both parties' incomes. Even if the divorce decree makes the other party liable, many mortgage companies do not release one party from the mortgage.  Thinking of Refinancing? 

A Texas family court cannot compel a lender to release a party from a lien. 

 Thus, even if only one party owns a house, both parties are liable for the mortgage.

Read more and learn your options.