For lenders and financial planners

Where I fit

A divorce buyout and a divorce sale start from the same question: what is the house worth, and what would each spouse walk away with? I answer the market half, in writing, with the comps and the arithmetic shown so you can check every figure against your own model before you rely on it. You answer whether a buyout can be financed, or what a sale means for your client's taxes and long-term plan.

I work for the sale, and for both spouses as sellers. Even if you advise only one of them, anything I produce goes to both. No exceptions.

Buyouts and refinancing

Fannie Mae's Selling Guide (B2-1.3-02) lets a divorce buyout be treated as a limited cash-out refinance when the home has been jointly owned for at least 12 months, there's a written agreement, and the borrower keeping the home receives no proceeds. Whether a given client qualifies is your call, not mine.

A few other points come up with clients often enough that I mention them early. A quitclaim deed changes ownership but doesn't take anyone off the mortgage, because the loan is a contract with the lender. FHA loans are assumable, though the original borrower stays liable unless the lender releases them. And under 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(7), a lender can't call a loan due because a divorce decree makes the borrower's spouse an owner. I never quote rates. When a client asks, I point them to Freddie Mac's weekly survey and to you.

For planners and CPAs

I state tax rules as facts. The application is yours. Here's what I tell clients, with the source each time, so that when they arrive in your office they've heard the rule from me once and know the question of how it applies to them is yours.

• IRS Publication 523: a seller can exclude up to $250,000 of gain on a main home, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if they meet the ownership and use tests.
• Pub 523: a seller can count the home as a residence while a former spouse is allowed to live there under a divorce or separation instrument and uses it as a main home.
• Pub 523: divorce or legal separation is an unforeseeable event that can qualify for a reduced exclusion.
• IRC section 1041 and Pub 504: a transfer to a spouse or former spouse incident to divorce is generally not a taxable sale, and the receiving spouse takes over the transferor's basis.
• Pub 504: incident to divorce means within 1 year after the marriage ends, or under the divorce instrument and within 6 years.

What I provide

For any house in Lane, Linn, Benton or Douglas county, I can prepare the market side of the analysis in writing, with the same version going to both spouses and to any advisor they've agreed can see it. All of it is in writing.

• A comparative market analysis with every comp and adjustment shown. It's a broker's opinion, not an appraisal.
• Estimated net proceeds at several prices, after payoff, commission and costs of sale, using the equity split tool or a written net sheet.
• A listing timeline built from recent days on market for the town, published on the areas pages, with dates for listing, review and expected closing.
• Carrying costs per month while the house is on the market, from the owners' own bills.

The same numbers for both

If you're working for one spouse and a colleague is working for the other, you'll both get the same CMA and the same net figures from me. I won't run a more optimistic version for one side. When clients ask me to, I'll copy both advisors on updates.

That consistency is the point. Two advisors arguing from two different valuations is slower and costlier for everyone, and starting from one shared set of market numbers lets the disagreement move on to the parts that really are yours to advise on.

Send a client my way

Call me at 541.784.7745, or have your client use the consult form. It helps to know whether a buyout is still on the table, whether the divorce case has started, and whether there's already an agreement or order that says what happens to the house. Either spouse can reach out first. I'll make the same offer of help to both, and I'll keep you in the loop as far as your client wants.

If the plan turns into a buyout, I'll step back and hand the market file to the lender. If it turns into a sale, you'll have the numbers before the listing goes live.