Selling a Home in a Divorce? Avoid These 7 Common Mistakes

Divorce adds risk and stress to the already-intense process of selling a house, sometimes to the point of unraveling the entire deal or making a home unmarketable. On one occasion, an estranged spouse returned to the house to claim belongings in the middle of a showing, said Stacey Wyatt, a top-selling agent in the Roswell, Georgia, area. The spouse and the former partner started arguing about artwork kept in an attic — in front of the agents and prospective buyers. “They’re obviously going through what typically is a messy or tough situation, and there is a lot of charged emotion,” said Wyatt, who regularly works with divorcing clients on their real estate needs. “There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes I may not be aware of, such as battles over kids. It all comes into play.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 672,502 divorces and annulments nationwide on a yearly basis. At a rate of 2.4 divorces every 1,000 people, chances are, you or someone you know may have to sell your house under these circumstances. However, there are ways to sell a home in a divorce without jeopardizing the deal so you and your former spouse can start fresh. W...