Division of Assets During a Divorce

[Jesse Burns]

Hello, I have 6 rental properties under an LLC that is equally owned by me and my soon to be ex wife. We are going through a contentious divorce and I would like to buy her out, but apparently thats not very easy.

If we sell the properties our gross earnings will be about 300k, while our net earnings will be around 150k, due to capital gains, depreciation taxes and realtor fees.

My lawyer, who is not experienced in real estate investing, says I have to buy her out based on gross earnings, so I'd owe her 150k. It would be cheaper for us to list the properties with a realtor and then buy it myself under a different LLC, if I'm legally allowed to do that.

I haven't been able to find any information online about gross vs net buyout. It's so contentious that even if I offered her 10k more than net, she'd tell the court to sell them, just because she knows it would hurt me.

Anyone ever been through this it have advice?