My sister and I put my Mom's house in our names 10 yrs ago to protect the asset. The house needs siding, can we use Mom's money to pay for it?

The costs for maintaining the home need to be paid for by the property owners - you & your sister. Mom paying for anything not directly for her care or her needs will be viewed as gifting with a transfer penalty imposed by Medicaid should she apply for Medicaid anytime in the next 5 years.

? What is happening with rental income? This should be building up to pay for the costs on the property....taxes, insurance, maintenance. If daughter isn't paying FMV for rent, perhaps "rent" needs to be raised. When you transferred the property 10 years ago, what was the reason, was there a plan to make it an investment property or 2nd home? 10 years is a long time to constantly be paying for things without a benefit. Just curious.

Mother has been living in the house for 65 years, until 2 years ago when it became apparent she wasnt safe living alone. I moved her in with me at my house. Initially I didnt have the time or energy to get the house ready to sell so my daughter moved in as I say to keep the utilities paid. Its an anchor around my neck, just not sure whats the best way to proceed financially

So essentially your Mom gave you and your sister the house at no cost to you, and now you expect her to pay for the upkeep too? If you need help from Mom it would be better to set up a caregiver's contract and have her pay you for her care. The house is yours to deal with. Where is your sister in all this?

Jody - if mom may need Medicaid, the state can do a 5 year lookback on all her finances (for my mom it was 3 years & 6 months). So it she can't do a dime on anything on her old house.

You know having a second or third home just isn't feasible for most folks. And really keeping your parents home is just that - but at least you own the home and can sell it & keep the proceeds. My suggestion is to put pen to paper and figure out the hard costs on the house for the last 2 years (the "nut" on the house) and then look at the "majors" on the home (roof, plumbing, siding) & appliances to see which of those need to be replaced and get a rough estimate on that. Now can you & Sissy really truly afford the house? Does the current rent situation make any real difference in all this - my guess is that it doesn't and is just a bandaid of the bigger problem that it's an old house with all sorts of delayed maintenance that will be very expensive to replace to code. Then call a couple of Realtors who sell in the area to see what they have as comps for the house. A Realtor with a bigger group will have all the MLS ability and can do a comps book for your in a couple of days. Then based on those figures deduct the costs of replacing the "majors" and that is what you could maybe get for a sale less Realtors commission. Personally I believe in always using a Realtor as FSBO for an old house with problems is just fraught with problems and sticky legal issues.

One thing folks just don't take into account is that there are costs to selling a home. There will be increased utility cost for 24/7 showing ability; regular yard care; costs to pretty it up and perhaps do staging to get any interest. Ask the Realtor what the DOM - days on market - is for comparable properties. If it's 6 mos, then that could be costly. Your daughter may or may not be a liability for the Realtor to show the house. If there are pets, they need to be gone when showings happen in general. You need homeowners insurance to know that it is under listing by Realtor too as they may require a waiver or an addition to the policy for this. If there are majors obvious, then all that gets deducted from whatever you thought you could sell the house for. Buyers just expect granite countertops & rainfall shower heads if they are expected to pay a good price on a home. Unless you are in a rare area where there is no inventory (this is what is happening in my area - New Orleans - and there are bidding wars for better areas) But this is rare.

If the Realtor price is a lot lower that the current tax assessor figure, I'd bet that only the bottom feeders who pay for tear downs for land value only will put in an offer. Could be just a break even from your past 10 years of costs. But at least you'll get some $ and be done with the property. Good luck dear.

Thanks give a hug, you answers are pretty much what I figured, just thought someone else may have been in this position and might have some advice. Mother wanted the house in our names to protect the asset for her children and grandchildren. She will live with me for as long as its safe and practical for her to do so. We'll be paying for her care in the event she has to go to a NH, we're not looking to beat the system, just a 90 year old woman wanting to hold on to something to leave to her family.

I agree 100% with what igloo572 had posted above. And I am thinking those past 10 years that you had owned the property as a *rental* investment, you weren't able to take any tax write-offs because there was no or little rent coming in [the rent has to be market value, not a discount to a relative]. I understand that your Mom was living there for 8 of those years, and you probably didn't want to charge Mom any rent, is that correct?

Depending on location of said house, if in a booming area, you could sell the house *as is* without fixing one thing selling to an investor [via a Realtor] who will go in and fix up the place and re-sell the house.