My family (8 siblings and I) inherited our parent's retirement home. It is lake property and most of us want to keep the property, and before he passed, my father expressed his wish that we keep it. Because the real estate market is so bad right now, we have agreed to keep it for at least a few years. The big question is "how should we co-own the property?"

Does anyone have some words of wisdom? We have been briefed about tenants-in-common and joint tenancy. One option would result in the last remaining sibling being the sole owner (a possible episode for Murder She Wrote); the other option would extend rights to spouses and offspring (a potential divorce nightmare). A friend mentioned a trust, but we know nothing about trusts. Ideally, we would like the property to be owned/managed by blood relatives only. Any ideas?

What do you all want to happen, if one of you die, do you want your children to have share, or do you want to lose any of your rights at death.

We would like the blood heirs (not the spouse) of the deceased to have some ownership in the property.

It does sound like you need to get an real estate attorney and set up the property into a trust.

There will be monetary considerations (i.e. bills). Can financial responsibilities be addressed in a trust? Or do we need to address this in a separate legal document?

You are in somewhat of a noble undertaking, but a real pain in the arse. So, there are nine owners, presently? How are nine owners going to agree not only on when to paint, but what color to paint? Having said that, there is virtually nothing new under the sun, so prepare to research for a while and begin looking for an attorney who can help you with the legalities of joint ownership in the state where this property is located.

Thank goodness for democracy. We have voted on a number of issues and surprisingly our votes have been unanimous to-date. We made some decisions about the little things (e.g. garbage, phone, winter plans, yearly contributions, banking account, schedule, responsibilities, etc.). We alos decided that if someone determines a need, and it costs less than $100, they can do the repair and get reimbursed from the cabin fund. Anything more expensive is going to require some research and discussion. Luckily, the cabin is wood and painting will be a non-issue.