Because planning a wedding wasn’t enough on my plate right now, my fiancé and I also recently purchased a home together! It was my second home purchase ever, and his very first one.
This experience was much different than my first purchase, however. My first house was a new build – so I worked directly with the builder and needless to say it was move in ready with no repairs needing to be done. My fiancé and I went a different route, purchasing a home built in 1949 with a ton of character!
The first hurdle was getting approved for a loan. My fiancé was shocked at how much information the bank needed: his salary, bank account information, employer information, previous addresses, and the list goes on.
The second hurdle was trying to agree and compromise with the sellers on every detail such as a closing date, home inspection time, and list of repairs. It was a lot of work to cram into about two months, but the real work started after we moved in!
My fiancé had this grand hope of us throwing a housewarming party within the first month (ha!) but instead, we have spent every night and weekend weeding the flower beds, cutting the grass, sweeping and mopping, making multiple trips to Lowes, and relying on our amazing parents for help with broken lights, sprinklers, and other small electrical issues. Needless to say, the housewarming party still hasn’t been scheduled…
We have definitely learned many important lessons from this whole process. Thanks to my experience as an estate planning and probate attorney here at My Pink Lawyer®, I made sure that we took title to the house correctly: with that magical language “rights of survivorship.” That way, if something happened to one of us, ownership of the home would pass to the survivor without requiring a probate.
We also learned how important it is to be organized. We have an entire file cabinet now dedicated to “house stuff.” Home ownership is a complicated step in adulthood. But it’s also very fulfilling and something to be proud of.
Acquiring a home and other valuable assets always brings me back to realizing how important it is to have an organized, well-crafted estate plan in place. We work so hard to achieve home ownership, and I believe it’s just as important to make sure that your legacy is passed on to your loved ones as simply and effectively as possible.
In the meantime, we will be enjoying our new house and waiting, anxiously, for our new furniture to arrive so we can finally have that housewarming party!
Want to learn more about titling your home to avoid probate? Schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys!
