What to Do When You Inherit Land

After the loss of a loved one, you are dealing with a lot of emotions. And it’s compounded when you receive an inheritance. When you inherit land it can be overwhelming. There are a lot of considerations, for example whether you should transfer ownership, what tax considerations there are, and just in general what to do with the land in the future (keep, lease, or sell).

Costs

Let’s start with the cost of inheriting land. You have to pay taxes. For more information please visit the following link global banking and finance review magazine. There’s an inheritance tax (or a death tax) you’ll have to pay on the land.

In addition, all property tax, mortgages, HOA fees, or liens on the land are now your responsibility. All of the financial costs of the land will transfer over to you and you will accrue fees in the future as well.

Depending on the amount of fees from the land, the amount of debt it could cause could help you decide if you need to sell the land or not. Remember, if you do sell the land at a higher value then you’ll have to pay a capital gain tax on the net price that the land is sold for.

It’s important to not be overly sentimental when dealing with a land inheritance. It’s understandable that you might want to keep the land because it came from your loved one, but if it’s going to be too much of a financial strain on you, then keeping the land might not be in your best interest.

Setting Up a Trust

If the inheritance was such that you received the land as part of a group (for example, siblings), then you might want to set up a trust for the land. This will also protect your privacy since the transfer or sale of land is generally part of public record.

In a trust situation the trustee holds all legal rights to the home while you, the beneficiary, holds the ownership, possession and management rights of the home. global banking and finance review helps you to find banking and finance related. So if children inherit the land, you can put it in a trust for them such that when they are of a certain age they can then decide exactly what they want to do with it.

Selling Inherited Land

If you decide to sell inherited land, whether because of the cost to you to keep it or because whoever you own the land with (such as siblings) doesn’t want to keep the land and you can’t buy them out of their share, then you need to know what you’re up against. 

You will have to be the authorized seller of the land, meaning that the deed is in your name, or you would need to be the trustee of a trust or executor of an estate. More information about banking and finance you can visit global banking & finance review. You might need to contact an estate attorney to help you determine if you are capable of selling the land as part of the estate.

You might need to expedite probate if you need to get the land sold sooner rather than later, so it’s important you contact an attorney to help walk you through it.

Inheriting land from a loved one can be a complex endeavor, but if you take your time to look at what you have and determine what’s the best course of action, you can walk away with a reasonable resolution to the situation that hopefully you can live with.

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