208. Should You Keep the House in Divorce? Why Your Realtor Can't Answer That Alone

Should you keep the house in your divorce — or sell it? Your realtor can give you an answer. But excellent real estate advice can still be a costly divorce mistake. In this episode of Divorce Explored, Karen Chellew and Catherine Shanahan use the marital home — one of the most common and emotional decisions in divorce — to expose a bigger problem they call "professional silos": your realtor, accountant, attorney, financial planner, and mortgage professional each giving you sound advice that doesn't coordinate with the rest of your settlement. A realtor can't tell you how much equity actually remains after the mortgage and selling costs, what assets you'd give up to keep the house, or whether you can refinance and maintain it on your own income. The same siloed thinking shows up in tax advice, support orders, bifurcated divorces, and forensic accounting referrals — leaving you, the client, as the unpaid translator between five different professionals. In this episode, Karen and Catherine cover: Why your home's net value matters more than its sale price — and what "you can just keep the house" really means How a support order structured around the mortgage payment can quietly block a refinance Why year-end tax savings is only one piece of the divorce-timing decision The questions to ask before acting on any professional's recommendation How to coordinate every advisor around one complete, verified financial picture The answer isn't fewer professionals — it's making sure they're all solving the same problem using the same financial facts. That's what the MDS Financial Portrait™ was built to do. Learn more at MyDivorceSolution.com. The We Chat Divorce Podcast is hosted by Karen Chellew and Catherine Shanahan, co-founders of My Divorce Solution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices