Hi, I (32/F) live in Madison, WI, and am looking for a home around $2000,000 -250,000 with my partner (46/M). He has excellent financial fitness, maxes out retirement contributions, no debt, and enough money in mutual funds (not retirement) to put 20% down on the house purchase.
I am not in a position to buy right now. I have $28,000 in student loan debt and $6,000 in medical debt that I am trying to aggressively pay down. Our original plan was to continue to rent for 2 more years until I would be able to be part of the loan. For various reasons, we want to buy now.
The plan is to have the loan in his name (he was just pre-approved for $350,000) and the title in both of our names. What could be the downsides of this? From what we have read, if we are both on the title, and a creditor comes after me, the house would be considered an asset and a lien could possibly be put on it. I don't want my lack of financial health to negatively affect my partner at all.
We know that we will definitely talk to a real estate lawyer about a contract (what would amount to a pre-non-nup) that would outline what would happen if we were to separate. We were planning on having both the loan and title in his name, with a contract that outlines what equity I would earn from paying X amount of dollars a month (a % of the equity based on how much principal my portion of the mortgage payments would be chipping away at). We figured we could use a spreadsheet to keep track of it so that everything is transparent. If this is still the best case scenario, we would do it. However, if it is possible for me to get on the title (or a trust that included both of us to be created that would be on the title), we would both want to go that direction.
We are both first time home buyers. We want to make the decision that would both protect and benefit both of us. Any advice or insight would be appreciated. We will still go to a real estate lawyer regardless, but wanted to be prepared as possible before the appointment.
Thanks!
Submitted January 30, 2017 at 12:09PM by howardkeel http://ift.tt/2kKVpVb