Hello Everyone,

This is the best forum that I know of when it comes to LL issues and education. I am looking froward to a happy event, that is getting married for the first time. Before I spend a ton of money on lawyers I have some questions. I have about 20 SFH and most ot them are paid for. My questions are.......

1. When I buy and sell property does anything change since I am now married.

2. If I sell a long term rental will she need to be considered a owner also

3.What do I need to do differently now and on future deals?

That is a question for your attorney. It will vary by state law.

NC is not a community property state but there are ways that spouses who were not married to the "owner" at the time of the purchase have been able to either block the sale of the property or share in the proceeds from the sale.

Have you heard of a pre-nup?

After you get married, whether or not your spouse is on the deed, NC rules that they have an interest in it and their signature is required to sell it.

You need a prenup written by a lawyer who specializes in this.

You will need a prenupt, and operate the rental business out of separate funds. Never use joint funds or her funds.

Congratulations

Prenup, but don't go straight to the lawyer. Sit down with your honey and have a serious discussion about finances. The two of you together decide what is fair to both of you and then you go to a lawyer and have him write it up.

If you can not discuss finances with your partner, you don't know them well enough to marry them.

Hint, don't be surprised if your future wife doesn't want to give you years of her time and then to be thrown out with nothing to show for it.

When DH and I married, he was in no way interested in leaving anything to my (then PITA) almost-teenage sons. 31+ years later, he's now known them longer than he's known his own son LOL (ours!) He's their only father, our DGDs only grandfather, so now the goal is to split the whole shebang as equally as possible.

As others have said, there are some state-specific laws around separate vs marital property that you need to flush out. That being said, I offer this for your consideration:

Set up a single-member LLC with you as the only member and the manager. Deed your real estate into this LLC. Then have a competent attorney create a prenup listing the membership units in this LLC as separate property. You will then be able to sell the real estate without her signature and keep the proceeds as separate property. In the future, should you choose to do so, you can designate all or part of the membership units as marital property. As for future deals, if you want to keep them separate, you should be able to buy them within this LLC if the LLC and prenup are structured properly. Otherwise, if you wish them to be considered marital property you can set up an LLC with both of you as members and buy them with that LLC or just buy as joint tenants with right of survivorship.

I agree with the above advice, you need a good estate/real estate/family law attorney to work with you on this issue. And you will need to help your future wife to get her own attorney to review and advise her separately.

A friend of mine was getting married for the first time at 50 years of age. His wife to be had been divorced twice before and wanted a pre-nup agreement to protect her and her children. If she died she wanted her estate to go to her kids, not her new husband.

A few weeks before the wedding they went to her attorney to sign a prenuptial agreement. The attorney asked what her net worth was, it had to be disclosed. Her response was $950,000. Then they asked my friend to disclose his net worth before the marriage. He responded, "I don't know the exact amount! Maybe 4, 5 or 6 million. Then when my parents die, they are in their 80's, that's another 20 to 25 million". The attorney said to his wife to be, you dummy, you should have gotten a prenuptial agreement -- half or more of his estate would have gone to you!

prenups have more to do with divorce and claims on the money. Estate planning has more to do with what happens with your stuff when you are gone. Really two different things. Divorces can get nasty, death means you don't need anything you have here. (you can't take it with you)

As for your rentals, if there is a divorce, she might have a claim to it, depending on your state laws and any prenups. If you are gone, then you want whoever to have your money and properties.

You could put her name on some deeds with yours, or not. I don't think anywhere you would have to get her permission to buy or sell if only your name is on it. Another question to ask is how much interest she has in these helping you with the rentals... if you have had a few date nights that she helps paint or fix, you might have a future business partner as well as life partner. If she really hates them, there could be trouble down the road if she thinks you are spending too much time on them, and neglecting her. Hopefully, she also has interests of her own.

Red,

Congrats!

Prenup for sure. I follow Dave Ramsey's advice: a prenup protects your marriage. When extended family perceive you have money they will weasel their way in or influence your new spouse. It only takes one to mess up a spouse's attitude.

The sales pitch is "I want our marriage to be about our love for each other, not my money."

Sure you can share the profit and sales as much as you want but if someone gets greedy you are protected.

And yes, woman can woo you for your money.

My college roommate's wife divorced him because he had finally accumulated wealth and her family convinced her to drop him and take half now, which was PLENTY for her to live on, before he possibly lost it somehow. "Get it now while the gettin's good."

Not to be a downer but stats show that divorced people who remarry have a higher likelihood of divorcing again.

Here's a handy website for her: MissNowMrs.com Forms for name changes, driver's licenses, passports, etc

The mortgages stay in your name, not her's. Your credit score for future purchases will be combined with hers.

Best of luck to the bride and groom!

BRAD

I also think a prenup (although here they're called AnteNuptial Agreements) is necessary. As everyone else said, state laws all differ ... divorce and death are different scenarios.

If you two split up (either divorce or death) and she gets all your money, she is free to attach herself to any schmuck out there that smells your cash and perhaps squander it all away. You can protect her and her child with legal assistance.

I would also recommend a prenup. Every marriage has a "prenup" already, whatever is state law.

Credit scores are not necessarily combined. Since my husband and I keep our finances separate, have our own credit cards and do not share any loans, we have different credit scores.