Creative ideas to fund buying a home from a family member

[Jason Hawkins]

Hi everyone!

Looking for some advice on the best way to handle obtaining ownership of my grandma’s (who recently passed away) home. My grandmother passed away a few months ago and her home was passed down and split to her 6 children in a trust. They have been renting the property through a property manager for over a year as she has been in assisted living facilities. Once she passed they decided that selling the home would be the best option. I have been looking into purchasing real estate and I see this as a golden opportunity to get started with house hacking but I want to to make sure sure it’s done right.

The question is what would be the best way for me to work with my family so that I can finance a purchase of the home, manage, and rent out the other rooms to start off my real estate endeavors. I know that we could do some kind of seller financing, which would probably work best for me since I don’t make a whole ton of money right now. But I’m not sure all the steps to making that happen. The home is worth over $400,000 and I am looking to get it a little cheaper than that if I can but I also don’t want to feel like I am screwing over my family. 

Does anyone have any tips on seller financing, or any other ideas come to mind in making this a transaction that makes everyone happy. As far as I can tell they just want to sell it and get rid of it but with 6 children making the decision on what to do it can be difficult to really tell what their intentions are with the home. 

The home is in good condition and would require little in the way of renovation, I’m in the Bay Area which is a high market right now so I don’t see too much of an issue with finding tenants for rooms, (Also considering making the other rooms airbnb). Any help tips, ideas, or brainstorming would be very helpful. Thanks!