My Dad will be passing this spring into summer. Reference to his home would it be better to put in my name now and pay capital gains later. Or leave in his name and let it go through probate and attorney.
Is your father getting Medicaid? If so, the house is an asset and shouldn't be subject to title transfer until Medicaid has been paid/made a claim on the house.
FF offers good advice. If your father is sole fee holder of the property, and if Medicaid isn't an issue, what you could do now is hire an attorney to prepare a Quit Claim Deed from your father to himself and you, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. Record this now; when he passes, title will immediately vest in you.
In our experience, no probate was involved because there was no property to probate - title vested in my father after my mother died.
This should be done by an attorney though; title transfer in Michigan requires payment of transfer fees, so you'll want to minimize those, assuming your state has transfer fees as well. E.g., transfers of title into a trust weren't at the time we did this subject to more than I think just a minimum fee, or perhaps there was no fee at all.
If title were transferred at his death, the value of the house would be "stepped up" to value on the date of the sale. So there would be no capital gains then.
If I had to make that decision, I would leave the property in my Dad's name and wait until I inherit the property. Otherwise, as you had mentioned there would be capital gains. Is the house vacant or do you or family live in the house.
My Dad's house is vacant as he is now in Independent Living [same as your Dad as per your profile], but my Dad has the house on the market For Sale, that way he will have added funds to help pay his rent at IL. Plus home insurance carriers do not like to insure a vacant house, but the carriers will let you keep the house vacant as long as it is on the market For Sale.
FF offers good advice. If your father is sole fee holder of the property, and if Medicaid isn't an issue, what you could do now is hire an attorney to prepare a Quit Claim Deed from your father to himself and you, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. Record this now; when he passes, title will immediately vest in you.
In our experience, no probate was involved because there was no property to probate - title vested in my father after my mother died.
This should be done by an attorney though; title transfer in Michigan requires payment of transfer fees, so you'll want to minimize those, assuming your state has transfer fees as well. E.g., transfers of title into a trust weren't at the time we did this subject to more than I think just a minimum fee, or perhaps there was no fee at all.
If title were transferred at his death, the value of the house would be "stepped up" to value on the date of the sale. So there would be no capital gains then.
My Dad's house is vacant as he is now in Independent Living [same as your Dad as per your profile], but my Dad has the house on the market For Sale, that way he will have added funds to help pay his rent at IL. Plus home insurance carriers do not like to insure a vacant house, but the carriers will let you keep the house vacant as long as it is on the market For Sale.