deal with Grandma

[mlemorvan]

My 80 year old Grandmother will be selling her country home this year. She needs a place to live with her middle-aged son (which rules out senior complexes), wants someplace quiet (rules out apartments) and a place that she won't ever get evicted from.

My husband and I own our house and a duplex and want to keep investing, but we don't have enough for a down payment. I had the idea of buying a little house that my grandmother could pay the down payment on and then she and my uncle could rent from us. My question is, how to structure this to protect my grandmother and still have a good deal for us? I thought of her loaning us the money at a very low interest rate and deducting the money from her rent. Or should we do a shared equity? co-tenancy? (I'm still learning about those terms) Thanks

 

[housingrental]

This seems like a great way to complicate your family life

Provide free knowledge, not a for your profit business to your family

 

[brentdavies]

Adam had a great post.



Sounds like Grandma has a dependent Adult. What will happen to the son once Grandma passes away?



She could buy a condo in town, and then there is no eviction issues.



Other family members can claim you stole from Grandmother's estate. Won't happen until after the funeral. Then the knives come out. Sounds silly but ask any lawyer the lawsuits over a person's estate. Estates can be nasty. Good intentions without consulting all family members can be dangerous.



Dealing with aging parents and family members happy can be difficult and is a fine high wire act to do well.

 

[mlemorvan]

Thanks for the advice. As much as I'd like to help my Grandmother in what I thought could be a win-win situation, it's probably not worth the risk of potentially hurting family relations.

 

[biancahamiltonrealtor]

look at all the ethnic groups that don't look at multi generational co habitation as some big bad taboo and observe how they accumulate wealth much easier.

we, westerners think of this as something bad, but a family pulling together can accomplish much more, much faster.

this could be a win win for you and grandma, take care all is spelled out for all parties including uncle and can function very well.

 

[invst4profit]

Or there is always the potential for a win/lose. Grandma and the uncle may do fine but if the owner does not operate the property strictly as a business there is definitely the potential for problems.

Family/money relationships can get very messy and often end up in court.



The uncle factor and greed/resentment of other relatives has the greatest potential to cause problems and would be my reason to steer well clear of this business arrangement.

Although grandmas money may be very tempting to want to get ones hands on.