Separated from my spouse, on the way to divorce.

I want to keep the house and buy them out at 50% - we have both agreed that we have contributed about 50/50 toward the home purchase/expenses and that things should be split equally.

However, spouse doesn't want me to buy them out - they want to co-own the house so that they can get more return on their investment/more money later.

I will not do this - it doesn't make sense to me for a million reasons, plus I can afford to buy them out and want to stay. I'm not offering them less than their fair share.

From what I've read, keeping co-ownership of a house isn't common and doesn't necessarily benefit either party drastically.

I thought we could do this thing without hiring separate lawyers, but now I'm not so sure. He's digging in his heels so hard that now I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend $$$ on a lawyer just so the judge can either allow me to buy spouse our or make us sell the house and split the profits.

Does me refusing to co-own really make me as much of a monster as my stbx is convinced I am?