Keep your friends and enemies close, but keep your real estate agent even closer!

Guys and gals, listen up to this local real estate professional who shares an experience that proved very costly for a spouse.

Dear Miki:

To tell or not to tell is always a difficult decision, because there is no right answer when one finds out that a friend’s spouse is cheating. Some people want to know and some don’t. However, when real estate is involved, the only answer is to tell. You were spot on in last week’s column, “Cheating hubby should be exposed before home sale.”

I had a friend who was unaware that her husband was cheating and planning on leaving her. They too were having a little financial trouble, and the husband convinced his wife that they should sell their home.

The husband had found a nice little apartment and told his wife they should move into it even though their home was still on the market. It was a better market then and they were not expecting the property to be on the market long. He told her he didn’t want to lose the apartment because it was at a good price. They planned to move on Saturday. The day before the scheduled move, while the wife was at work, he called her to tell her he had to move up the moving date to Friday and he would take care of everything.

He moved her stuff into the apartment – and he moved in with his girlfriend. The wife was so upset when she found out, she became a vegetable, unable to take any real action. When an offer did come in, she was about to sign an acceptance but decided to call me first even though I lived 500 miles away.

Finding out that she had no attorney to handle the divorce, we took care of that first. Then we determined there was approximately $100,000 worth of equity in the property. She demanded $50,000 through her attorney as a cash settlement for the house and split the rest of the remaining assets. The terms of the divorce were signed, sealed and delivered prior to the close of escrow. 

When the escrow did close, guess what the husband had to pay? Capital gains tax on $100,000!

~ Margie Ward,

Folsom RE/MAX Gold

Dear Margie:

As I’ve always said, everything in life relates to real estate. Thanks for bringing it home!

Miki Garcia can be reached at

askmikigarcia@yahoo.com.