Texas is a community property state, and as such, you and your spouse will be expected to divide your marital assets equally. If you bought a home together, the value of this property may need to be divided as well.
This can be a difficult task if you intended to stay in your home, especially if the home is the most valuable asset you have. Depending on the overall value, your spouse may want to keep the home themselves, sell it to split the profits or rent it to bring in income in the long term. If you wanted to live there in the future, you need to ask yourself if you’re going to be able to negotiate to get your spouse’s share.
Community property division doesn’t mean dividing each asset 50/50
Fortunately, community property rules only mean that you need to divide the value of your marital assets in half, not each item. So, if your home is worth $400,000 and the remaining assets are valued at $500,000, you may be able to negotiate for the home and around $50,000 of assets to get your half of the marital estate. On the other hand, if your home is worth $500,000 and your other assets are only valued at $100,000, you may have to come up with the money to purchase your spouse’s share in some way. Even if they take all $100,000 of the assets, they’re entitled to $300,000 overall prior to negotiations.
To keep your home after a divorce, you may need to take out a mortgage or refinance a loan to purchase your spouse’s share. You may also negotiate with other shared assets. In the end, if you cannot figure out how to divide the value, selling the property may be the better bet.