Legal Question in Family Law in California

The court will always support a division that both parties enter into knowingly and intelligently. You should probably meet with an experienced family law attorney to explore the different terms that you would like to have in your marital judgment. When you have a long term marriage like yours, there are number of hidden unexpected assets and liabilities that may need attention.

It really makes no significant difference whether you sell before or after FILING other than you would need to file paperwork with the court about it if it is done after filing for divorce. If you are going to have to, or want to sell rather than one of you keeping it and buying the other out, you may want to do it before the divorce is final, however. Even if the divorce settlement says the property will be sold, it would have to be awarded to one spouse with the other getting a share of the proceeds. This will result in it being sold by an unmarried person, meaning the capital gains exemption will be 1/2 what it is if you sell while still legally married. So if you have more than $250,000 in equity in the house, you will pay extra taxes if the sale is after the divorce is final.