How to Split a House in Half?

Post date: 2024-08-29 04:16:39

Our mom passed away a while back and my sister and I inherited the family home, 50/50, which my sister lives in (I am overseas). Ideally she'll sell the house and we'll both walk away with half of the value, but since she lives there, I'd like to be considerate and propose other ways we could work this out, should she prefer to stay. What alternative agreements do folks/ siblings work out in cases like this?

A few details:

Let's say the house is worth $400K.
I don't believe my sister has income, and I don't know about any savings.
We also inherited a third of the value of the house each in cash.
We have an elderly uncle from whom we *should* inherit a reasonable sum + small property (although this would decrease significantly if he goes into a home).
My sister isn't currently in great health, so for now, her jumping through the hoops required to sell the house is unlikely (I don't know how this will change in the coming months).

So best case scenario for me is that she sells the house and we both walk away with half of the cash each: worst case scenario is that she stays in the house indefinitely and I get nothing. Are there some in-between scenarios? What I'm trying to do here is do my due diligence and pool all the possible options, as a starting point for a discussion about what next steps are viable.

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