Name change and selling/buying property
I live in Colorado, USA. I have a call in to my attorney, and I thought I'd check to see if other folks have ever been in a similar boat as me, or might be able to offer advice.
My partner is divorcing me and we are selling our home. I took title to the house and I'm listed on the mortgage in my birth name. I already started my procedure for a legal name change and my court date is coming up.
I think that selling our house is going to be easy enough. The title agent at closing is going to have to notarize my signature, so as long as I sign my birth name and have a valid state issued photo ID in my birth name, she should be able to witness my signature and the sale will go through without a hitch.
My concern is when I buy a new place post-divorce. Hopefully I will have my new name and new ID by that time. My real estate broker said something about using both names when I take title?? I don't want to do that. Cadastral records like property deeds are public record where I live, and I don't want both names to be indexed together. Then anyone who searches the county records would be able to find the deed indexed with both names, and it would instantly out me.
One thing I was thinking is getting an LLC or having the attorney set up a trust to shield my name and personal information, but I don't have much money to do that. Also, someone told me that if the property is owned by a corporation instead of a person, that I would have to pay commercial rates on homeowner's insurance. That sounds like bullshit, but is there any truth to that?
Does anybody have advice, or has anyone else been in a similar situation? Thanks for reading!
Posted Mar 20, 2018, 11:09 PM UTC