DEAR REX: Your wish is easily possible, but your current method of holding title is dangerous. If one of you dies before the problem is fixed, you (or your brother) could wind up owning half of the condo with the late brother's children if they are specified heirs in the deceased co-owner's will.
Worse, those new co-owners could force a sale of the condo. It's called a partition lawsuit.
Consult an estate-planning lawyer. I suspect he or she will recommend holding title to the condo in a joint living trust where you both can express what you want to happen, such as that buyout arrangement, when one of you dies.
DEAR BOB: About a month ago, I heard a radio ad from a mortgage broker. He advertised no upfront cost, no appraisal fee, no this and that. I phoned him. Everything sounded good as I wanted to refinance to lower my home loan interest rate. I gave him all my income and expense information over the phone. He said I would have an answer within 24 hours. Although I did receive "loan approval" within 24 hours, it was for a different loan than we discussed. The mortgage broker's fax of his "good-faith estimate" of loan costs was much different than what we talked about. Without my approval, he unexpectedly sent an appraiser to my house. The appraiser wanted a $350 appraisal fee, which I paid in cash. The appraisal was much lower than my home's market value. I'm out the $350 fee for a bad appraisal and this mortgage broker threatens to sue me for his loan fee. What can I do? -- Juan P.
DEAR JUAN: Report the facts you stated to your state agency that regulates that mortgage broker, who should be put out of the mortgage business. As for your $350 appraisal fee, you could sue the appraiser in small-claims court for breach of contract or fraud if you can prove the appraisal was inaccurate based on recent home sales prices of comparable, nearby homes.
DEAR BOB: I own three rental houses and my personal residence. I want to leave them to my kids, but not in "share and share alike" amounts. Should I create a living trust for each property separately with a surviving beneficiary? Or can I have one living trust and include all four addresses, each with a different provision for who gets what? One child will need more financial help than the others. What do you suggest? -- Elly W.
DEAR ELLY: You can accomplish your goals with either one living trust to hold title to all your properties, or a separate living trust for each property. You can amend a living trust as often as you wish, such as when a living trust beneficiary has a personal situation that changes the desirability of an inheritance. There are so many advantages to a living trust in terms of flexibility, compared to holding title as "joint tenancy with right of survivorship," I can't begin to list them all.
Readers with questions should write Robert J. Bruss at 251 Park Road, Burlingame, Calif. 94010, or contact him via his Web page, www.bobbruss.com.
© 2004, Inman News Service
