# life estate



## bruce2288 (Jul 10, 2009)

I hope some of the lawyers or realestate people can help. I am 58 years old, have no one I feel I need to leave an inheritance to. I am considering selling my farm as a life estate. What % value of the farm could I expect as a lump sum or as yearly payments? Thanks.


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Don't rule out leaving it to me! Actually, I'm sorry, I can't help you, but I hope someone can.


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## copperkid3 (Mar 18, 2005)

bruce2288 said:


> I hope some of the lawyers or realestate people can help. I am 58
> years old, have no one I feel I need to leave an inheritance to. I am considering selling
> my farm as a life estate. What % value of the farm could I expect as a lump sum or as yearly payments? Thanks.


***********************************************
is a bit up in the air, and as such, you are probably confusing the term with another. If you have 
no one to leave or want to leave your estate to.......then if I'm gathering it correctly, you wish to 
continue living at the residence until your death, but want to have someone pay you for it while 
you're living there? This would be known as a reverse mortgage. You must be 62 yrs of age to 
enter into such an arrangement. There are also both pros and cons to this type of contract and 
you should review them carefully to understand both and how they relate to your individual situation. 
You can have the payments made to you either as a lump sum or spread out over a longer term. 

The money that you receive is non-taxable. 

On the other hand, you might also be thinking about a Retained Life Estate which is similar in that 
you can 'donate' your property to an organization and take the charitable deduction of what your property 
is worth, in the first year that you enter into such an arrangement, while it allows you to continue to live 
out the remainder of your days at the residence. When you leave this vale of tears, the organization takes
possession of the property and does what they will with it. 

Best bet, is to discuss your desires with a real estate attorney and have them advise you to what
works best for you and the state that the property is located in.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

*You need to contact a local Real Estate Attorney.* You can certainly sell your property and retain residence until you die, if you choose to do so. That is reflected in your Contract. It doesn't have to be a Reverse Mortgage, either. Most folks would rather go this latter route, not realizing, they can also sell to a private investor.


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## mikec4193 (Oct 13, 2011)

HI Everyone

In the upstate NY area a life estate is nothing more than you continue to own a pacrel of property with the Heirs listed on the deed. When you pass on it goes to the names listed on the deed (typically your kids). What some of the farmers in my county have also done is they sell their development rights. They also continue to reside on the parcel of the land just they cant sell it to a person or company that will subdivide it into tract housing. 
For me, I would go see an attorney and see what he can do with your property. There are many options I am sure.

MikeC


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## DAVID In Wisconsin (Dec 3, 2002)

I've known others to sell or transfer their properties subject to a life time estate. Young as you are, the discount would be fairly big. And as someone pointed out, you're too young for a reverse mortgage. Do be careful as reverse mortgages often have very high feees associated with them. good luck.


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## bruce2288 (Jul 10, 2009)

lorichristie. You got what I was talking about. I did check with a couple of local realators. B Calculating the discount from the value seems to be a little complicated, due to not many sales of this type. Depending on how long I live the buyer could get an unheard of bargain or not so much. I guess I also need to consider whether the buyer could arrange an accident to acquire the land quickly.


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

We had thought of what to do with our farm before we had kids, we were thinking of getting a young couple started in farming and work them up to full partners after a few years if everything worked out with both parties. Then as we grew to old to farm, the partners would then be around to run the farm and help keep an eye on us as we grew older. Then once we had passed away they would either be allowed to keep farming it until they retired or if they did not want to keep farming it would revert back to an heir we decided on. I thought it was a win -win for both parties, but finding the right partners could be a challenge, it would be for me. 
Most of the time I have seen a farmer work his whole life building up a farm only to sell off the livestock as he got older and couldn`t handle the day to day grind of keeping livestock. He then would row crop farm his land for a few more years till climbing up and down on a tractor got the best of him. Then he has a farm auction and sells off all the machinery and sits back and waits. And you say waits for what? Well you sit back and wait for the big dirt nap, then once he is buried and the kids start fighting over the amount of money or farm ground pa left them. There is nothing left but the memories of that farm, not of what they use to be, but they way they are now. run down buildings and not a head of livestock on the place. What a sad story , but happens on most farms today.
Thats why I think a partnership is great if you can work it out. There is always the idea that the partner could just do a buy out, with a long term owner financed contract. What ever way you want to do it is ok by me, but do you want to see your farm continue, or if you don`t care if it does or not. > Good Luck > Marc


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## Wylie Kyote (Dec 1, 2009)

Hi bruce2288.

Have you ever thought about leaving your property to a VERY WORTHY charity. Notify the charity that you have bequeathed your property to them and request they maintain the property while you still reside there.

Wylie


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

bruce2288 said:


> I hope some of the lawyers or realestate people can help. I am 58 years old, have no one I feel I need to leave an inheritance to. I am considering selling my farm as a life estate. What % value of the farm could I expect as a lump sum or as yearly payments? Thanks.


Selling a farm while retaining a life estate is like any other transaction and will depend upon your buyer... and what he/she is willing to pay. At 58 if your are in reasonably good health now, your buyer may not get control of the farm for another 30 or 40 years.... so in their position, I would not want to pay much for it. However, if you retain possesion of only the house and yard, possibly a small portion of the land for your own use, and grant them use of the rest... you could probably get near full price for the farm. One thing I learned early on when I became a real estate agent is there are no set rules... all things are negotiable and people are subject to do the durndest things sometimes. One of the strangest deals I put together involved selling a farm... minus the new barn and a large two story house. The owner took his buildings with him when he sold the place!


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