living with children

[cg6947]

Eleven years ago my wife and I entered into a land contract with our daughter. It was for fifteen years and then she will own our house. Before the contract we built a new addition to the house for us old folks.

My question is: should we create a new contract with our daughter to make sure we have a place to live in the future?

[AmandaSingleton]

Hi there, @cg6947:  Thanks for your post.  For your circumstances, without hesitation, I recommend that you get in touch with an attorney who is licensed in the State where you live.  Make sure that the attorney is versed in real property matters and estate planning.    It is valuable to reach out on forums like this one to see what other folks have done or plan to do, but take the advice of others with a grain of salt on topics like real estate.  The reason:  every state has different laws.  What works in Texas may not be a good choice in Iowa, for example.  There is simply no one good, uniform way of doing this (how I wish there was!). 

Although I cannot give you legal advice on this forum, I can tell you that it is critically important that any contract, deed, or other documents related to real estate be carefully prepared.   Mistakes can be difficult to rectify, for a variety of reasons. 

Also, it will be worthwhile to discuss your aging-in-place plans with your advisors (attorney and financial advisor, for example) to go over the logistics of everything.  Those can include your wishes if an alternative living arrangement is needed.  Long-term care is not a goal of many people I see, but as years advance, it becomes more and more likely that a stint in a long-term care facility will happen.  69% of people over the age of 65 will develop some sort of disability and 35% will eventually enter a nursing home.  Comprehensive planning means taking those statistics into account.

Wishing you and yours many years of health and happiness, and best of luck with your planning!