Protect Your Interests While Lending a Helping Hand

Generally, the costs of transferring title this way are not the same as in the sale of a home to a purchaser. You should be able to transfer the home by using an "executor's deed" (perhaps even a deed issued by the court) and signing the various transfer tax and other forms required in the jurisdiction the home is in. Frequently, you would not have to pay any transfer taxes on the transfer of title to your name as you are not paying any money for the home.

In general, the current lenders would not be involved in transferring the home into your name. In some instances, the transfer to your name of the title to the home would not even trigger what is known as the "due on sale" clause. That provision in most mortgages says that a lender has the right to call the loan due when the property is sold or title to the property is transferred. When a person dies and title is transferred to a spouse or a child, the due-on-sale clause would not apply.

If the due-on-sale clause did apply to your situation, it would be at the lender's discretion to exercise it. It's unlikely that the lender would call your loan if you have been prompt in making your loan payments.

Once title is in your name, you will have the choice to refinance the loan using your own credit and pay off the prior lenders.

When you own more than one home, you have to declare one of the homes your principal residence, and you generally can have only one. That primary residence would receive a break from the local taxing authorities, often known as a homestead exemption.

You can inquire at your local real estate tax collector's office to determine what the requirements and limitations are on homestead properties where you live. But you'll probably find that you will need to choose one home or the other. Federal tax laws also give special treatment to principal residences.

When it comes to the deductibility of real estate taxes and interest payments, the first issue is determining who owned the home and who paid the expenses. If the estate owned the home, the estate should be entitled to deduct the expenses. If you paid those expenses, you might be entitled to reimbursement from the estate.

If the title was transferred to you, or you are deemed the owner of the home, and you paid the interest payments on the home loans along with the real estate taxes, you might be entitled to deduct those expenses if the home was your primary residence or if it was your second home, but only in some circumstances. If you have multiple homes, you may be out of luck.

Other factors can complicate the situation, affecting your ability to deduct these expenses.

I am trying to take care of my son's father's estate in a small north Florida town. He had a handwritten will designating me as the personal representative, but with only one witness signature.

He was never married but had two children, my son and a daughter with another woman. This other woman lives in this small town.

All was going well until the other woman would not agree to a 50-50 division of the estate.