Man plans to sell ranch against late grandpa's wishes, sister upset, he says 'pay for it.'

Nothing can divide a family quite like selling off inherited land.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for planning to sell his grandma's ranch in order to pay for a move. He wrote:

"AITA for selling my late grandparents' ranch even though they asked me not to?"

Long story short, my grandparents used to live on this ranch for almost 60 years and both passed on the property. My mother was raised there and so were my siblings and I so there's quite a lot of sentimental value to the house. There's also a lot of monetary value to the property. The problem is the upkeep. Especially as a single 28-year-old with a moderate pay job.

Which is what I told my grandfather years ago when he told me wanted the house to be my inheritance to raise my own family like he did his. It became a running thing with him telling me I needed to get comfortable with the house for when it's mine, me saying I'd just sell it and him arguing with me about that.

He sadly passed early last year quite suddenly and true to his word, left the house to me among other assets. I decided I'd try make the old man happy and accepted the responsibility. For the past year, I've been trying to make everything work with fluctuating success but ultimately, the house is somewhat of a sinkhole.

On top of that, I've been headhunted for a job across the country with potential to move overseas within the next year. After long internal deliberations, I decided to just sell the house. When I told my sister, she lost her s#$t. She says I'm disrespecting the old man's wishes by selling it to a stranger and should rather let her and her husband have it.

I told her she could have it immediately, as long as she could pay the market value for the house. She thinks it's unfair to ask for money for a house I got for free and offered to stay in it and in return she'll upkeep it herself. I was planning on using the money from the sale for a place when I move though so that also wouldn't work out.

There's a lot of tension now and she's even trying to rally family members against me. I get the old man wouldn't be happy with this if he were alive, but frankly, and lovingly, he isn't and I shouldn't burden myself right? Am I the AH?

The internet weighed in with their honest assessments.

Shitsuri wrote:

NTA. I’m not the biggest fan of venerating the wishes of the dead when it’s counter to your own well-being. I think it’s nice that you tried but your grandpa was under no illusions about your feelings on keeping the ranch in the family Definitely check for hidden treasure, cursed gold, or buried bodies before you sell.

Edited to say that with the added context from OP, I think selling it to sister “for fair market value” is sh#$ty. Sure, she should pay something, at least to recoup your cost from maintaining it (assuming that also didn’t come from your disproportionate inheritance), but you’re drifting into AH territory for me.

NandorDeLaurentis had a question:

NTA, but I have a question: How did it become yours to sell? As in - did your sister get nothing? Did she get something else of similar value?

And OP responded:

She got monetary inheritance. Wouldn't say it was of the same value of the total I got.

TheMarlinsOnlyFans wrote:

YTA. It was given to you specifically on the condition that it wasn't sold and that it stayed in the family. You KNEW what he wanted with that ranch and you are choosing to serve your own self-interest instead.

Shot_Tension2810 wrote:

YTA of course. Let's call a cat a cat. Your problem is not that you couldn't "make things work", you want to sell it because you simply love money more than family heritage. Otherwise, you would've agreed to your sister's offer. At least have the decency to sell it to a family member. Or rent it to them.

Even if you needed money desperately, he did give leave other assets so why do you want to sell the one thing he insisted you don't? Major AH imo. It's sad that he left it to the one person who doesn't give a f*** about anything other than money. And quite frankly, I'm starting to think that the "me saying I'd just sell it" part is not true.

Did you really insist that you'd sell, or did you play the caring grandson card to get what you want? Why would he leave it to someone who made it clear that he doesn't care about it otherwise?

WitcherKingdom wrote:

Why not have your sister rent from you? That way, the house is still yours if ever in 5 years she decides she wants to move (and at that time, you can sell or move back depending where you're at in life). You'd get a bit of monthly income to help with the move overseas and your sister could live in the house and keep it in the family.

It seems quite unfair that you got the house only because you are a guy, but hey, that's not on you as it seems you've been quite honest from the start with what you'd do.

CoffinFlop-CornCobTV wrote:

I am 100% venting here and taking it out on you, but I get perpetually angry at how it seems like the only way people in my age range can afford a house is if they get a massive inheritance. So while you are basically set for life not having to pay a full mortgage ever again after the money you just accumulated out of nowhere, I will be scraping by just to try and make a down payment on a house.

You better not be one of those people in 5-10 years trying to give people advice on what made you successful without mentioning that you got a house for free and then pocketed all the money from selling it in order to buy your next house.

The fact that you are so greedy and would only give it to your sister for market rate, when she probably should have had 50% of that inheritance to begin with, is incredibly sh#$ty. YTA.

OP is clearly TA here, the question is, what he'll do with that ruling.