Question: Can we sell half a house which is used for a life estate? My father and his sister owned a home 50/50. They both lived in it. When my father died he gave a life estate to his sister and her husband with a rent of $1 per year, but willed his interest to us. There is no mortgage.

Answer: Let us say you can sell your share. Who would buy it?

The most likely purchasers are your aunt and uncle. However, they already have use of the house for the rest of their lives.

An outsider would likely not want a 50 percent interest -- a miserable number because it does not represent control of the property. Also, the life estate of your aunt and uncle would have to be respected by any new owner, and most property owners want more than $1 per year in rent.

But, do your aunt and uncle want to move? If yes, perhaps they would agree to give up their life estate if the property would fetch a given value. You'll need an attorney or legal clinic to do the paperwork.

The catch is that a life estate can have substantial value. In one case, a home was donated to a non-profit group in the 1920s with the understanding that the group would maintain the property and that the owner's then-adult daughter would have a life estate. She died in the 1990s -- having lived rent-free on the property for some 70 years.