We want to buy our sister's share of the family home, and she is being very difficult. We wanted to get a valuation and pay her from the rest of the estate, the fair market value. We got two informal estimates ourselves - one a market appraisal on the house site alone ($800,000), and one written price range estimate from a real estate agent (1.1 - 12 mil for both titles). We offered to agree on a value for both at 1.2, the upper end of the real estate agents quote and quote generous we felt.
She quotes a verbal quote from a real estate agent we weren't party to that the seperate title sold on it's own would get $8-900,000 - and wants 1.6 mil for both, which she has 'kindly' dropped to 1.5.
The house is in terrible condition and the real estate agent we spoke to thought of the seperate title attached to the house block as a 'perk' that could tempt a buyer to take on the massive project of the house.
Our next step is to let the executor of will know we can't agree on a value, and from there he will arrange his own valuation that we must both agree on.
So my questions are:
1) Are we legally able to acquire her share if we want to acquire at the fair market value of the valuation we both agree to accept, or can she force a sale?
2) If she insists more money can be gained at a sale than the valuation indicates, by renovating the house with funds from the estate before selling, do we just have to cop this coming from the estate?
3) Should we start looking for a new house or can we just relax that she will be obliged to let us acquire the family house at market value according to the valuation?
She's being absolutely horrid and bullying us terribly.
Other info: The deceased estate is my husband and his sister's parent's who died last year and it has been in probate since, with us living in and trying to repair what we can in the property. The executor of will is an independent person, not a beneficiary, and his instructions are to liquidate and divide all assets (we think this might affect our ability to keep the house if my husband's sister pushes the issue).
He has given us the option to agree on a value before getting his own valuation, and this is the point we found out our sister (my sister-in-law) thinks she can get more putting it up for sale.
Thanks kindly to any who troubled to read all this!
And thanks kindly for any answers, this is all so confusing.
Also - we aren't living here because we have to, we do own our own house. We moved in when my husband's father went into aged care to clean, keep the lawn mowed, pool looked after etc to minimise costs to the estate. It's costing us money but we thought we were contributing to the family as a whole in the long run. We can move out at any time and leave the expenses of maintaining it to the estate.
She quotes a verbal quote from a real estate agent we weren't party to that the seperate title sold on it's own would get $8-900,000 - and wants 1.6 mil for both, which she has 'kindly' dropped to 1.5.
The house is in terrible condition and the real estate agent we spoke to thought of the seperate title attached to the house block as a 'perk' that could tempt a buyer to take on the massive project of the house.
Our next step is to let the executor of will know we can't agree on a value, and from there he will arrange his own valuation that we must both agree on.
So my questions are:
1) Are we legally able to acquire her share if we want to acquire at the fair market value of the valuation we both agree to accept, or can she force a sale?
2) If she insists more money can be gained at a sale than the valuation indicates, by renovating the house with funds from the estate before selling, do we just have to cop this coming from the estate?
3) Should we start looking for a new house or can we just relax that she will be obliged to let us acquire the family house at market value according to the valuation?
She's being absolutely horrid and bullying us terribly.
Other info: The deceased estate is my husband and his sister's parent's who died last year and it has been in probate since, with us living in and trying to repair what we can in the property. The executor of will is an independent person, not a beneficiary, and his instructions are to liquidate and divide all assets (we think this might affect our ability to keep the house if my husband's sister pushes the issue).
He has given us the option to agree on a value before getting his own valuation, and this is the point we found out our sister (my sister-in-law) thinks she can get more putting it up for sale.
Thanks kindly to any who troubled to read all this!
And thanks kindly for any answers, this is all so confusing.
Also - we aren't living here because we have to, we do own our own house. We moved in when my husband's father went into aged care to clean, keep the lawn mowed, pool looked after etc to minimise costs to the estate. It's costing us money but we thought we were contributing to the family as a whole in the long run. We can move out at any time and leave the expenses of maintaining it to the estate.