Can I buy the home I share with my wife if we get a divorce?

[bad.beat]

My wife and I live in Florida and unfortunatley we are heading toward a divorce. It is an amicable divorce so we are not fighting....yet. Anyway, we are trying to come to a decision as to what to do with the house. I have offered in leiu of child support and alimony payments that I continue paying the mortgage and she pays for everything else and we share the kids 50/50. However, as I was searching through Yahoo answers I came across some questions about buying the house from the ex. How exactly would that work if it's a home that was purchased as a couple? The questions I came across really didn't address *my* question so that is why I am asking it.
Thank you all for the answers so far. By buying her share does that mean the equity earned from the house or half of the total value of the home?

OR, does that mean we agree on a price?

[*Anna*]

If she agrees to let you buy her out, it's fairly simple. You will need to re-qualify by yourself for the entire mortgage, though. If you know that the bank will qualify you, you just refinance & have her name removed from Title. Laws in every State are different. I'm in California, but I do work in Escrow. She will either sign her share over to you in a Grant Deed during the escrow process with your refi. Or she will sign a Quit Claim Deed to the property.

EDIT: Forgot to say that you'll need to appraise the home first to find out its worth and then she will be paid her share out of escrow. Or, you can take out a separate line of credit to pay her half and just have her removed from Title. But, it's not something that should ever be done without the formal process. In my State, you can practice escrow without being an attorney. In other States, you can only do escrow if you are an attorney. You just need to look into that.

EDIT AGAIN: That means half the total value of the home. If you are both on Title with equal percentage rights to the property, then she is entitled to half the value of the appraisal. Otherwise, why would she do it? If the home is worth $800,000 and you could sell it tomorrow for that, she's not going to accept $300,000 as a walk away. You could turn around and sell it for profit.

[celticbuddha]

look at the balance of your home mortgage, then you pay half of that to her or the bank. then you have just bought yourself out of owning half of the house. of course you'll need to update the title and loan so that neither have your name on it any longer.

[Kel]

You would have to buy her out. Over her a price for the house so you can have it.

[Notredame]

Yes, you can. What ever the market price is, you give her half of that money. Then takes her name off the deed, she moves out, the house belongs to you and everyone is happy. Actually is cheaper that way since you don't have to pay for realestate agent fee and other stuff goes with it when you sell the house.

[queenie]

In order for you to own the house yourself you have to buy out your wife's share. She owns half of the house so you need to pay her for her half. If the bank owns part of the house you have to take that into account as well. If you paid $100,000 for your house and the mortgage is $80,000 you have $20,000 in equity in the home. This is split in half because of the divorce. Therefore you have to buy out your wife's share $10,000. This amount could change if the market value on the house has increased as well. Check with your attorney for all the details.