Sell House During Divorce Memphis - We Buy the Marital Home for Cash, As-Is

Whatever brought you here, this is one part of a divorce that can be finished quickly — no listing, no staging, and no weekend showings to coordinate.

Step 1: Tell Us About the House and Where the Case Stands

Call (901) 763-6616 or send the form on this page. We need the address, the rough condition, whose names are on the deed and the mortgage, and where the divorce is — nothing filed, pending, or already final.

Step 2: Get a Written Cash Offer Within 24 Hours

We look at what comparable houses nearby sold for and what it would cost to bring yours to that condition, then send a written, no-obligation offer within 24 hours. Both spouses get the same offer at the same time.

Step 3: Pick a Closing Date That Fits the Case

We buy with our own funds, so the date is a choice, not a lender's decision. We can close in about a week, or hold the date open for weeks.

To be clear: we buy houses. We are not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice — your attorney and the judge control what happens with your property. What follows is a plain-English look at the Tennessee rules that decide how and when a marital home can be sold, with every statute named so you or your lawyer can check it.

Yes, unless a court orders otherwise — because of a statute that switches on automatically the moment a divorce is filed.

The Automatic Injunction: Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-4-106(d)

When a divorce or legal-separation complaint is filed and the other spouse is served (or waives service), Tennessee law puts temporary injunctions in effect against both parties. One restrains both spouses from “transferring, assigning, borrowing against, concealing or in any way dissipating or disposing, without the consent of the other party or an order of the court, of any marital property.”

A house is marital property, and selling it is disposing of it. So while a divorce is pending, a marital home can be sold two ways: with the other spouse's consent, or under a court order. The injunctions stay in effect “until the final decree of divorce or order of legal separation is entered, the petition is dismissed, the parties reach agreement, or until the court modifies or dissolves the injunction.” The rule exists to stop one spouse selling out from under the other, not to block a sale you both want.

Homestead Rights: Tenn. Code Ann. § 26-2-301

There is a second reason both signatures appear at a Tennessee closing. Under the homestead exemption statute, “[i]f a marital relationship exists, a homestead exemption shall not be alienated or waived without the joint consent of the spouses.” That is why the non-titled spouse's joint consent is what waives the exemption, even when one name is on the tax record — a title-clearing signature, not a new ownership claim.

What If One Spouse Will Not Cooperate?

That is where your attorney earns the fee. Under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 70, rather than order a party to sign a conveyance, a court may enter a decree divesting title from one party and vesting it in another, with the effect of a conveyance executed in due form of law. Tell us early if cooperation is the obstacle — we would rather plan around it than find out a week before closing.

Tennessee is an equitable distribution state, not a community property state.

Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-4-121(a)(1)(A), the court must “equitably divide, distribute, or assign the marital property between the parties without regard to marital fault in proportions as the court deems just based on the factors set forth in subsection (c).” Read that twice: equitably, not equally, and without regard to marital fault. An affair does not, by itself, move the property split.

Marital Property vs. Separate Property

Subsection (b) draws the line. Marital property is generally what was acquired by either spouse during the marriage, up to the date of the final divorce hearing, valued as of a date as near as reasonably possible to that hearing. Separate property generally includes what a spouse owned before the marriage, what was acquired in exchange for it, and what came by gift, bequest, devise or descent. A house one spouse owned before the wedding, then paid down with joint income, raises a question that belongs to your attorney.

The Factors a Tennessee Court Weighs

Subsection (c) lists what the court considers, including the duration of the marriage; each party's age, health, vocational skills and earning capacity; each party's contribution to acquiring, preserving, appreciating or dissipating the property; the value of each party's separate property; and the tax consequences and costs of a foreseeable sale. That is why two couples with similar houses can end up with very different splits — and part of why selling helps: a house cannot be cut in half, and its value stays an opinion until somebody buys it.

There is no universal answer, but there are three real windows, and the Tennessee calendar shapes all of them.

Before Anything Is Filed

Mechanically the simplest: no injunction is in effect yet, both spouses sign as owners, and the proceeds go where you agree in writing. Whether that is smart in your case is a question for your attorney.

While the Divorce Is Pending

The window governed by the § 36-4-106(d) injunction above: the sale needs the other spouse's consent or a court order. In an uncontested divorce, that consent can be recorded in the Marital Dissolution Agreement. Tennessee effectively requires such an agreement: under Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-4-103(b), no divorce is granted on irreconcilable differences unless the court affirmatively finds the parties made adequate and sufficient provision by written agreement for the equitable settlement of any property rights, and that agreement “shall be incorporated in the decree or incorporated by reference.”

There is also a waiting period. Under § 36-4-103(c)(1), an irreconcilable-differences complaint must be on file at least 60 days before it can be heard if the parties have no unmarried child under 18, and at least 90 days if they do.

After the Final Decree

Once the decree is entered the injunction ends, and whichever spouse it awarded the house can sell like any owner: the other quitclaims their interest, the deed is recorded with the Shelby County Register of Deeds, and it closes as an ordinary single-owner sale. But the decree does not rewrite the note: whoever signed the mortgage stays on it until the loan is paid off, refinanced, or assumed.

One Tax Note Worth Knowing

Tennessee charges a recordation (transfer) tax of 37¢ per $100 when a deed is recorded, under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-4-409(a)(1), and § 67-4-409(a)(1)(A) figures it on the consideration for the transfer or the property's value, whichever is greater. The same statute exempts, at § 67-4-409(a)(1)(C)(v), decrees and deeds that “are an adjustment of property rights between divorcing parties” — and the Tennessee Department of Revenue confirms it in guidance REC-14. That covers the deed moving one spouse's interest to the other, not the sale to an outside buyer, which is an ordinary taxable transfer paid at closing.

We will not put a number on this page — any number not attached to your actual address is marketing, not an offer. What we can do is show how the number gets built.

How We Build a Cash Offer

We start with what comparable houses in your part of Memphis recently sold for, subtract what it would cost to bring yours to that condition — roof, HVAC, kitchen, flooring — plus carrying costs and our margin. What is left is the offer, in writing, and it is the number on the closing statement.

A cash offer is a below-retail price in exchange for certainty and speed. You skip the repairs, the commission, the showings, and the risk that a retail buyer's financing does not come through. Whether that certainty is worth more than the spread is your call, and we will tell you if we think listing serves you better.

What Comes Out Before Anyone Splits Anything

Paid at closing out of the sale	Who handles it
Mortgage payoff, plus any HELOC or second lien	Title company, straight to the lender
Delinquent property taxes	Title company, from proceeds
Judgment, HOA and contractor liens	Title company, from proceeds
Seller closing costs	We pay them
Real estate commission	None — there is no agent

Whatever is left is what your Marital Dissolution Agreement or decree divides. Title companies handle split disbursements: two checks or two wires, in whatever proportion the signed closing instructions say. If the split is unsettled, proceeds can be held in escrow.

The Alternative: One Spouse Buys the Other Out

Sometimes the better answer is not selling. If one spouse wants the house and can refinance the mortgage into their own name alone, a buyout removes the other from the deed and the debt. The catch: a quitclaim deed moves ownership but does not remove anyone from the mortgage. If the refinance will not approve, the spouse who moved out is still on the loan.

Two county offices sit behind a divorce house sale here, and knowing which does what saves confusion.

Where the Divorce Lives

In Shelby County, divorces are heard in Circuit Court and Chancery Court. The county's official listing of Chancery Court matters includes divorces, and the Chancery Court Clerk and Master's office is at 140 Adams Avenue, Room 308, Memphis, TN 38103, (901) 222-3900. The Circuit Court Clerk is in the same building, Room 324, at (901) 222-3800.

Where the House Lives

Deeds are a different office. Every deed affecting Shelby County real estate — the quitclaim between spouses, the warranty deed to a buyer — is recorded with the Shelby County Register of Deeds, 1075 Mullins Station Road, Building W3, Suite W165, Memphis, TN 38134, (901) 222-8100. The Register's office states that from the time it receives a deed, it takes approximately one business day to record and return it.

How Common Is This Here?

In its county table “Number of Marriages and Divorces with Rates per 1,000 Population by County, Tennessee Recorded Data, 2018,” the Tennessee Department of Health recorded 2,053 divorces in Shelby County in 2018, a rate of 2.2 per 1,000 residents, out of 23,840 statewide.

Where We Buy

We buy houses throughout Memphis and Shelby County. If yours is in a town or neighborhood we have a page for, start there: sell my house fast Germantown TN, we buy houses Collierville TN, we buy houses Bartlett TN, cash home buyers Lakeland TN, sell my house fast Cordova TN, sell my house fast Midtown Memphis, we buy houses East Memphis, or sell my house fast Berclair.

Weighing a cash sale against listing? Our guide to how to sell a house as-is in Memphis lays out all three routes. And if the mortgage has fallen far enough behind that a notice arrived, read how to stop foreclosure in Memphis first.

You do not need the divorce figured out before you find out what the house is worth. A written number is useful at exactly that stage: it turns the house from an argument into a line item.

Call (901) 763-6616 or send the form on this page for a no-obligation written cash offer within 24 hours. We buy houses in any condition across Memphis and Shelby County, we pay the seller closing costs, and we set the closing date around your case. More on how we buy is on the As-Is Home Buyer homepage.