From the Archive: It’s All About the House – What You Need to Know Before You Decide to Keep It with Tami Wollensak on Divorce & Beyond #423

The question comes up in almost every divorce: what happens to the house? It is usually one of the biggest assets of the marriage, one of the biggest debts, and one of the most emotionally loaded decisions people face. Wanting to keep the house and actually being able to keep the house are two very different things.

This week Susan is bringing back one of the most downloaded archived conversations from the Divorce and Beyond library, a conversation with Tami Wollensak, licensed mortgage loan originator and Certified Divorce Lending Professional, walking through the real financial realities of keeping the marital home.

Together, Susan and Tami unpack what it actually takes to keep the house in a divorce, from refinancing challenges and equity buyouts to qualifying for a mortgage on a single income, the hidden costs of homeownership, and why making this decision without proper financial planning can create serious problems long after the ink is dry.

Covered in this episode:

Why wanting to keep the house and being able to keep the house are two very different things, and what a Certified Divorce Lending Professional can do to help close that gap

How equity is calculated, why the purchase price is not the value, and what it means to buy out your spouse's share as part of the refinance

Why maintenance, alimony, and child support do not automatically count as qualifying income and what lenders actually need to see

How a missed mortgage payment can drop credit scores by hundreds of points and why "it was their responsibility" has never once removed a negative mark from a credit report

Why getting a home inspection before finalizing your divorce agreement is one of the most overlooked and important steps you can take

KEEPING THE HOUSE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU SIGN

Almost everyone walks into divorce negotiations with the same instinct: I want to keep the house. It is understandable. It is the family home. It is where the children have put their heads on pillows for years. But signing a settlement agreement without knowing whether you can actually execute it is not a successful negotiation. Some of the most important things to understand before you commit, are discussed in this episode:

Know the fair market value of your home today, not the purchase price, and understand what the actual equity is and how it will be divided