Sounds like she isn’t a self supporting adult...if she can’t pay the taxes on a run down house in a depressed area, she probably can’t pay rent anywhere either.

Help her become self-supporting (or else you’re going to end up with her living with you)...sell the house, move her into a small apartment, and get her some job training.

P.S. You could also structure the sale with seller financing. That is, your sister could take back a 15-year (or 30- but 15- is better) mortgage at a reasonable interest rate, again, discounted from market rates cause it is family. Then, every month that your sister lives in the house rent-free, you treat the rent forgiveness as a partial payment on your mortgage. That is, you send her a check for the monthly payment less the rent due. At some point, the rent will rise above your mortgage payment, and you'll start paying down the mortgage faster than the amortization schedule calls for. Or, perhaps her income will have risen to the point that can start paying you the difference between the mortgage payment you owe her and the discounted market rent she owes you.

This approach gives your sister a bit of income to supplement her minimum wage job, and also an incentive to leave the house and find a place with lower rent at some point to increase her monthly income due to the mortgage payment. Should she choose to do that, you can find a tenant to pay you market rent.

Ofc, you and DH need to come up with the money for repairs up front and assume responsibility for ongoing maintenance, taxes, insurance, etc. But you benefit from capturing any appreciation over the coming years, reducing your personal income taxes by your current losses -- including the paper "depreciation" loss -- up to the cap for passive business losses, etc. Eventually, you'll pay off the mortgage and have a nice stream of passive income, and when you die your kids will inherit the house, and probably not have to pay capital gains or estate taxes.

OP,

It seems to me that you and DH have a nice real estate investment opportunity here while simultaneously meeting your familial responsibilities.

The house should have been appraised as part of the filing of your father's estate tax return. Offer to buy the house from your sister for the appraised value. Apply that money as pre-paid rent for the next X years, at a bit of a discount off market rent since your tenant is your sister. Once you own the house, assume the costs of fixing it up to make it livable for her. Visit her every couple of weeks to make sure any maintenance is taken care of and that she's not destroying the place. Pay the taxes. Mow the lawn. etc.

Most important, help her get trained for a career so that at the end of X years, she can start paying the rent from her income. Depending on her age, this might not be an issue.

If she were my sister, that's what I'd, and I'm sure my late father would approve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother is in a similar situation but my parents are still living. He takes care of them and has a job that covers his spending. He would not be able to pay real estate taxes or repairs. I would pay for them and I’m a SAHM. Many people on this site are cold. My brother is not special needs but he suffers from depression.

So you mean your husband would pay for them?

Yes, my DH earns a high enough income so I don’t have to work. If he didn’t, I would absolutely work to help support my family.

Off topic, but if you are taking care of the children and home, then you are doing work that has financial value. Someone has to do that work, so you can pay someone to do it or do it yourself. If you do it yourself, you are providing a service to you family that is worth the amount you would have paid to someone else to do it.

You are doing work for your family, PP.

If she's in a rural area, there are usually people around who are handy and can fix things. Maybe she can find a roommate who will live there for a nominal rent in exchange for home repairs? We had a farm and allowed a local guy to keep his horses on our property in exchange for maintenance. It worked out great.

^^should add that local community action agencies are usually good sources of information for these programs, and typically also manage low income heating assistance programs.

As to the sneering posters, these programs help in two ways--maintain housing for people living in these homes and help maintain a property tax base the sneerers benefit from.

Check into the possibility of assistance programs for home improvement. Examples:
Energy assistance programs will replace furnaces, windows (install energy-efficient windows) and do other steps to improve energy efficiency for low-income homeowners with limited other assets.
There are many block grant funded programs (rural and urban) which fund major repairs to maintain the habilitability of a home, bring it up to code, etc, via no-interest loans the homeowner does not have to pay back if they remain in the house a certain number of years (and are recovered via a lien if the property is sold). You can even have other assets up to limits ($10k and $30k are the limits for some federally funded programs)
Communities sometime have other programs managed by non-profit organizations including builder's associations working with banks that assist low income homeowners.
I would look into these possibilities before taking on roommates, since roommate income/assets usually has to be considered as part of the household and that can affect eligibility.

I know people who have used these programs to replace furnaces, fix roofs, replace windows, get electrical issues fixed, etc.