I'll try and keep this short and to the point.
Grandma dies and leaves the family place to her 3 kids evenly. The kids aren't interested in the place and don't need the money. The grandkids (myself included) want to keep it in the family, but, while all doing well enough financially we can't afford to pay fair market value (about 2 million ish). We are willing and able to pay for upkeep. We were told "if yall want it come up with some ideas and we will get it figured out." Their only stipulation is that it will not remain the way it is now with their 3 names on the deed and no plan for the future. I believe their reasoning is that they are all getting up in age and don't want to create a mess when one of them passes.
Anyone have any ideas and/or names of lawyers that have dealt with issues like this?
Property is a couple hundred acres with house that needs work and associated barns.

7 grankids spread out across the country but all on board with keeping it. I am in College station and acting as the leader of the group for lack of a better term.
Forgive my ignorance on this subject, but would the trust have any significant tax implications for those involved?
ETA: land in Robertson county and I apparently can't type numbers

Family dynamics can really change over the years due to some of the situations mentioned above. Some of you may have seen my years old thread about family & land. My parents & sister's family are no longer speaking even though they live next door to each other.

I'd lean towards dividing the property by 7 now, paying the 3 owners for each share and then each grandchild can control and maintain their own parcel. You as the "leader" and the one living closest, are setting yourself up for taking care of business on the property from now on. Who's going to live in the house? Upkeep, repairs, monitoring condition & weather issues, etc. That will all be on you to go check & oversee.

Very valid point brought up about the heirs of the 7 of you as your situations change over the years due to a million possibilities. Divorces, deaths, remarriages, your children not seeing eye to eye.......

I can tell you from personal experience, there are only 2 of us siblings and it has been a nightmare that I never imagined. It's been hardest on my parents, since they now feel they made a mistake that has affected all of our family relationships.

Edit: One thing to think about if you keep it whole for the 7 of you are the very possible "undivided interest" issues as there starts to be multiple heirs down the line. A trust would probably take care of a lot of these issues, but I'm not a lawyer.

I really appreciate all the info yall have gained from personal experience. I am setting up an appointment with Mike Gentry in College Station to get his opinion and go over our options.
Being in charge of taking care of the place isn't an issue for me as I have basically done it for the last several years as grandparents health declined. The unpredictability of life events among 7 people is definitely a very real and scary issue to consider.

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Being in charge of taking care of the place isn't an issue for me as I have basically done it for the last several years as grandparents health declined.

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I figured that & what you have done for your grandparents is very admirable. This may sound harsh but will it get tiresome doing it for 6 able bodied cousins that might contribute very little & will you be compensated in some way for your time & work. Also add to your time the cost of keeping any equipment working, paying utilities, etc. and keeping track of who owes what. How do you handle late payments?

Glad you are seeking professional advice. We advised my parents not to sell part of their property to my sister & I'm sure a professional would have, too, but they thought family trumped logic.

Best of luck to you, I know it's a lot to figure out.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Oof. Friendly advice…figure out how to divide it right now.

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This is the answer OP.

The only other way is to convey it into a trust where everyone pays for upkeep and maintenance in 1/3 incriments (ie 1/3 for each kid of the grandmother...however they want to split it).

"We are willing and able to pay for upkeep."

Quite honestly it sounds like the rest of them are expecting you to pay and manage the upkeep for free. While it's noble you helped out your grandparents are you really wanting to be anchored to this thing and be everyone's errand boy in perpetuity? What you are describing is literally a full time salary job for people.

That is a very valid concern. I can say currently I have zero concern about them paying, but as others have pointed out that can quickly change with life events or possibly when a big expense arises.
What I understanding from most responses is that while this sounds cool now, there is a high likelihood of it going down the crapper at some point in the future.
I'm still going to meet with the lawyer and hear what he has to say, but afterward I definitely need to sit down with my cousins and have a long talk because there is quite a bit we had not considered.

How many heirs to the 7 of you, and how old are you guys? 3 current heirs, each entitled to 1/3.... That doesn't mean each grandchild is entitled to 1/7. How spread out are you? There will absolutely be people that realize they don't ever use it, but they signed away liquidity of hundreds of thousands to keep it.

This problem only gets bigger and locked up over the long term.

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3 current heirs, each entitled to 1/3.... That doesn't mean each grandchild is entitled to 1/7.

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Great question & point.

What if one has 5 and the others have 1 each. One family would make out like a bandit, the other 2, not so much.

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each branch of the family gets 1/3. NOT divided by how many grandchildren there are

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Agree.

cslifer said:

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I'll try and keep this short and to the point.
Grandma dies and leaves the family place to her 3 kids evenly. The kids aren't interested in the place and don't need the money. The grandkids (myself included) want to keep it in the family, but, while all doing well enough financially we can't afford to pay fair market value (about 2 million ish). We are willing and able to pay for upkeep. We were told "if yall want it come up with some ideas and we will get it figured out." Their only stipulation is that it will not remain the way it is now with their 3 names on the deed and no plan for the future. I believe their reasoning is that they are all getting up in age and don't want to create a mess when one of them passes.
Anyone have any ideas and/or names of lawyers that have dealt with issues like this?
Property is a couple hundred acres with house that needs work and associated barns.

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I think there will be several challenges you will face if you move forward on this.

• The FMV of this property will most likely increase over time. You as a group cannot afford FMV today. When one or more of the 7 grandkids wants out they will most likely want FMV at that time - which will be higher than today.
• There will be added financial commitment because of the house that needs work. This will also require ongoing maintenance (i.e. more time and money)
• I agree with point above from schwack schwack - you as the leader will be carrying the load and it will get old doing 100% of the work for 1/7th of the benefit. Do not underestimate the time commitment this will require.

I am in a similar situation with only 2 other partners. If I could go back in time I would have sold. My advice would be to let your parents sell the place or try to reduce the number of grandkids involved as much as you can, preferably to 1 (you).

With it being Robertson county, are there minerals involved? That's a hotbed for natural gas production.

I have seen this a few times and eventually it turns into a headache over time. The trust is the right way but what usually happens is one person ends up doing the majority of the work and then other problems arise from differences of opinions. Also if you put it in a trust before they pass it triggers tax implications if ever sold as the cost basis resets to the land value at the time of trust creation instead of the value at their death.

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The FMV of this property will most likely increase over time. You as a group cannot afford FMV today. When one or more of the 7 grandkids wants out they will most likely want FMV at that time - which will be higher than today.

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And the different values of the lots - who has more road footage, the pond, the house, who owns the equipment?

The three that inherited it get the step up basis & should sell now with the tax benefits & pass along to their kids however they choose. Obviously if you are the grandchild with no siblings, you will get the most benefit otherwise, you'd be forfeiting in an even split between the 7 of you, losing a bunch of money.

Sort of similar situation: my m-i-l had a distant relative pass in another state & there was no will. They did the research & found Mom. Mom's siblings were all deceased, so their shares went to their children. My wife didn't get anything, but all of her cousins got in the high 5 figures. Of course still having her Mom was more important than money, and her Mom did divide it between her children, but it's how weird things get.

Best thing to do is get a fair market value of the property. Get everyone together and ask if anyone can purchase it. Heck, if you want, give a little family discount. If someone or a group of someones can do it, then let them. Otherwise, sell it off and divide it the way the current owner wants. Maybe the owner wants equal shares to each grandchild (1/7). Maybe by equal parental shares (1/3). Maybe equal shares all around (1/10). Maybe grandma doesn't want someone to get anything????
Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be. It sounds like this family is not close enough to have business dealings with one another, so best to get rid of it at the beginning. If they were very close, this would already have been figured out long ago.

I would do whatever it took to purchase it in full from everyone else. You don't need 2M all at once.