Does location still matter most? Should you remodel your home to suit your tastes or for resale value? Are starter homes still a thing? We all have plenty of questions about the ever-changing world of real estate. In our Ask an Agent series, we’re partnering with experts at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to answer your biggest questions about finding, buying, and selling a home.

Family-to-family transactions can oftentimes seem like they would reduce a lot of stress in the home-buying process—it cuts down on search time, sometimes omits the need for a real estate agent, and everyone's likely familiar with each other and the home of interest. However, it can also create significant problems within the family as well as difficult legal issues. To find the best way to approach this unique process, a real estate agent shares the advice he would give his own customers.

These Surprise Costs Often Catch New Homeowners Off Guard—Here’s What to Budget For

Kevin Clark

For this installment of Ask an Agent, we spoke with Kevin Clark of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Dream Partners to discover what to be wary of if you buy a home from family members.

Kevin Clark is a broker and owner of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Dream Partners, located in Janesville, WI.

Ask an Agent: Should You Ever Buy a Home from Family?

As an agent, I've often been in the middle of these situations. I even have a current listing for a grandchild who received a plot of land from a grandparent, rather than the aunts and uncles in the middle. We're of course not all in agreement with this situation. To combat similar issues, I think that effective communication goes a long way. I think family dynamics are tough for all families. The families that communicate the most and can lay out expectations ahead of time will do the best at completing these transactions successfully, as almost all disappointment stems from miscommunication.

That's what typically happens when people have issues with these transactions—if somebody had an expectation of more inheritance or something like that, they now feel they're being cheated. If they didn't voice that expectation, it wasn't fair to the original owner for them not to know it. And so, communication is why this is key. I don't think we can avoid these family-to-family sales altogether; they're going to happen, no matter what. Again, just try to communicate as well as you can. But in the end, whoever owns the property has the right to do whatever they want with it.

FIND A BHGRE REAL ESTATE AGENT NEAR YOU

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.