You can sell your property at anytime with a 5 year fixed mortgage. When you sell and buy another property you can port your mortgage from the previous home to the new one. This is a simple process and has no penalties in doing so.

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My wife and i are in our 50s and have two grown children. we plan to retire in about ten years. we have an older will, but will probably update it. what is the best way to transfer property to children? does it depend on the net assets of the estate? what if the estate is $250k? 500k? $1 million? $2 million? are there better alternatives to a will?

a trust, usually. the will may not even apply to assets contained therein. I applaud your foresight. go get some estate planning advice,or at least do some research. try "living trust", "(irrevocable) family trust", "how to avoid probate" these should get you started. your state of residence matters a little bit.

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My in-laws are giving us a farmhouse and a few acres out of their 300-acre plot. 1. are we required to have it surveyed or will some other method do, such as latitude and longitude coordinates of the corner points? we don't anticipate any future boundary issues as all the surrounding land is left to us in their will. i'm not sure how the tax assessor can evaluate the property though if we don't have it surveyed. 2. i believe we just go to the county register of deeds (we're in michigan) and file a warranty deed, right? 3. will any transfer taxes be due when the selling cost is nothing? 4. does it matter if the "sales price" is $0 or do we need to give them $1 for any legal reason? 5. are any other legal instruments necessary for this transfer? 6. we don't plan to do a title search, as it has been in the family 125 years and we don't intend to sell until we gift it to our children. i do realize any liability is ours if the title is bad. 7. do i just contact the county treasurer's office to get a tax parcel number for the new property description? and do i do that before or after the warranty deed?

there are likely to be gift tax issues. and the IRS will want to get a cut, i suspect.

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My grandmother passed away several years ago leaving a single property in her estate with some funds in a joint acct. to clear her estate when she passed on. she also left a will with one of her daughters (my aunt) and myself as executor of her will. at the time my grandmother had prepared her will i was not aware i was named as an executor if my aunt did not want the responsibilities of executing her will, but my aunt and her daughter and several other family member new of the will and the expectation of the will. my grandmother had been ill for years prior to her passing and in that time my aunt had progressively been transferring the property into her name (i have the county records), when i moved in with my grandmother my aunts daughter showed me the will and said her mother should be able to keep all the property for reason to long to mention but not related to the intend of the will. at some point during the time my grandmother was in the hospital the will was removed from my grandmother's home. when she passed away the family members waited for the will to be read but nothing happened, when i wrote to my aunt to ask when the will would be read she said that she now is the owner of the property and that there is no will. i have tried to get information of the whereabouts of the attorney that wrote the will, several months ago my sister finally told me; i contacted the agency and the attorney's only record is that my grandmother ask legal questions about a will but they have no record of a will. my aunt has now transferred the property into her adult children names and now i am at a lost of what to do. can anyone give me some guidance, the probate attorneys want to see a will that some family members have seen but don't want to get involved. i thank you so much, i am on a limited budget so when i contact an attorney again i would like to have done as much research as i can.

You need to ask this question in a different category. Try Business and Finance - Personal Finance or Other Business and Finance

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I am planning to buy a property that has the following history: 1. according to the documents shown to me by the present owner of the property someone named a inherited the property from his father b in the year 1952. the present owner has shown me a registered deed for this transfer from the father to the son. however the municipal corporation doesn't have any record of such transfer. 2. in the year 1960 mr. a before he died handed over this property to his 5 children equally by making a registered deed. both the municipal corporation and the sub-registerer office has recod of this transaction. 3. in the year 2007 these 5 children gave a power of attorney individually to someone else(mr. x) who is trying to sell me the property. i have taken help from a lawyer and searched the records in the the sub-registerer office from the year 1952 and have seen that there is only one record of transfer of this property in the year 1960 from mr. a to his 5 children. also i have got a report from the municipality confirming the transfer of the this property in the year 1960 from mr. a to his 5 children. the present municipality tax papers show that the property is still muted to the name of mr. a and has not yet been muted to the name of his five children. now i need some opinion about this property. 1. would it be wise to buy such a property? 2. what should be the steps to follow if i decide to buy this property? 3. what could be problems in the futute? 4. will it cause any problems if i do not get any deeds prior to 1952? as i will not come to know about the history of this land. also i am not sure about the existance of this deed(as the municipal corporation doesn't have any such records) which shows transfer of the property to mr. a from his father mr. b in the year 1952? please help...

The question is posted in Yahoo India and i assume the property is in India. your doubt is that there is no deed from B to A. A has inherited the property from B as legal heir. for inheritance there need not be a transfer document. Just the proof of ownership by B and his death certificate and legal heirship certificate of B is sufficient. here you have to check whether A only a surviving legal heir of B. again A giving to 5 children and the five children individually giving power to some X and that X selling the whole property to you are legally valid transactions. the only doubt is whether B had some other legal heirs other than A is to be checked as all legal heirs of B are entitled to derive title by inheritance. Even if such legal heir was alive and he ignored about the property and all municipal records show only A as owner from 1960 till date, the other legal heir lose his rights by barring the time limitation to claim it. so in my opinion you can proceed with the purchase. get it clarified with a lawyer.

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My sister in law told me that having property set up in a living trust prevents the heirs from having to pay estate taxes. and then the property is then transferred directly to the children and does not go through probate. if it went through probate, what happens to it? please assist if you know anything about this. also if more is owed on the house than it is worth - i am a little confused by this - then there is significant $ loss or owed by the heirs. is this true?

Living trusts are excellent vehicles for generating lawyer fees. If you retain power over the assets in the trust, they are still part of your estate. My guess is that your sister-in-law went to one of the many wealth seminars that are taught for the primary purpose of making money for the people running them. If you die when the mortgage balance is higher than the value of the house, the mortgage is handled based on your total estate. The mortgage balance has no affect on the gain or loss. The cost basis becomes the value on your date of death and the sales proceeds when the house is sold determines the gain or loss. If the house is sold immediately after your death, there will most likely be a small loss because of the transaction costs (broker fees, transfer taxes, etc.) The loss will not affect the personal tax returns of the heirs.

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The oldest is the executor of the estate. the other child wants to buy his half of the mother's home to transfer the house to her son. now the executor and estate lawyer say that the house value cannot be split that the whole value of the house comes out of the second inheritor's half of the estate. shouldn't the value of the house be divided between the two children and the one who is not the executor be able to buy the other child's half of the house? the way it's being done results in the executor child receiving all the monies and the other child receiving nothing. what is the kentucky law on this? the executor (son of deceased) says that his half of the house is not being bought by the other child but rather the whole value of the house is being bought. this does not make sense. why would the other child buy they own half?

If the property is divided then both children get half of her property.

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Mom's husband died. he left a will, leaving everything to her. unfortunately, most of his estate consists of bills, bills, bills. he had a lot of credit card debt she didn't know about (individually-held credit cards, not joint). he also had a mobile home she has no interest in keeping. he moved it onto her property when they married 10 years ago; he made payments on it up until his death. an attorney told her (via free consult) that she'd be better off *not* having the will probated. he said that many wills are not probated in tx. if she probates the will, he explained, then she will have to liquidate what few assets he left in order to satisfy the creditors. her husband had adult children from a previous marriage. they were estranged from their father for many years. although mentioned by name in the will, they were left nothing. the attorney says that if we were to have the will probated, they could possibly argue the validity of this 10-yo will, and force mom to sell his old vehicle, old boat, etc. if we don't probate the will, how will mom sell the old truck and old boat (forgot to ask the lawyer)? can she take marriage license and death certificate to the officials? any help appreciated.

Without a probated will, legally, she's not supposed to sell anything that belonged to him. Could she get away with selling them, probably, it really is dependent on how the items were titled. As to his creditors, I don't know for sure how they would handle debt collection. In theory, it's possible that they could go after his estate, even if the estate consisted of an old car and boat. Since the bills are in his name only, I think that you're mom is safe from having them go after her for payment. I have seen announcements in the local paper where Person A states that they are not responsible for any outstanding debts of Person B. I don't know if such a thing is legal where you live. I really suggest that you contact a lawyer that is experienced with probate issues and talk with them. It doesn't sound like the one you talked to is giving you very good advice.

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I have a friend who is going to sell me their property we have all ready signed a contract however the property is still in the name of the parent who recently pasted away a "will" clearly states that the property and all the wealth was to be left to my friend including the property in question will a quitclaim be the proper form to file with the county to transfer ownership can the "will" be used as evidence to defend the claim there are no other children involved or next of kin

No. You need a personal representative's deed either from the estate to your friend, and then a quit-claim to you from your friend, or a personal representative's deed from the estate to you. By the way, just because the will says it will be your friend's does not mean there was not a mortgage that will have to be paid, or title or survey problems, homeowners association issues, or other problems that need to be sorted out. Going through a closing agent (title company) and getting a warranty deed will resolve most potential issues. It will cost a lot more, but it is worth it.