Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: signed contract

Depending upon what the document says, the document could be considered by a court to be a legally binding agreement of sale. One of the things that a judge would look at is whether the one party receiving the half interest in the property actually gave up something of value in return - called "consideration". If there was an agreement where the receiving party gave up some rights and in return was promised a half interest in the property, then a court could find the agreement to be legally binding (if it has all of the other incidents of an agreement of sale - it specifically identifies the parties, the land, and the time in which the rights and obligations shall be performed). If the written document is too vague or ambiguous, or if the circumstances show that there was no consideration, but that this was simply a promise to make a gift at some time in the future, then a court might not enforce the agreement. Take the agreement to a lawyer for him to actually see what you have. There is probably no easy answer on this one - because you are in the grey zone with a document not drawn up by a lawyer.