I am in a Mortgage Conundrum - please help
3 Replies
Dan N.
posted 19 days ago
My wife and I just added our children to the deed of our house, which we currently have a mortgage on. We also happen to be in the middle of applying for a HELOC with the same mortgage lender. We started the application process before adding our children to the title and the lender is about to send our application to the underwriters. My wife and I don't want to jeopardize our current mortgage (our children have no income), and we are worried that going through with this HELOC might cause our lender to see that our children are now on the deed, thereby invalidating our current mortgage and causing problems with the HELOC as well. Would it be best to just cancel the HELOC application at this point? We also aren't sure whether it's best to openly discuss this with our lender because we don't want them to invoke the due-on-sale clause, as we have technically transferred ownership of a portion of our property to our children. Any advice would be appreciated!
Jason Wray
Banker from Nationwide (Florida)
replied 19 days ago
Dan,
Relax and do not worry about your children being on the title. That will not hurt your chances on getting a HELOC as only one income is needed to qualify not all parties on title. Having a child/children on title does not hurt you in any way unless they are over 18YR of age and they have power of attorney. But that is for Trust/Estate issues and does not apply to your question. Unless your lender has some strict overlays you should be fine with your current situation. If they were quit claimed onto the deed then the names may appear and they may need title to draw specific docs but they handle that on the UW/closing side. Typically it's best to explain your situation up front during the application so that it does not slow your closing down.
Dan N.
replied 19 days ago
Originally posted by @Jason Wray :Dan,
Relax and do not worry about your children being on the title. That will not hurt your chances on getting a HELOC as only one income is needed to qualify not all parties on title. Having a child/children on title does not hurt you in any way unless they are over 18YR of age and they have power of attorney. But that is for Trust/Estate issues and does not apply to your question. Unless your lender has some strict overlays you should be fine with your current situation. If they were quit claimed onto the deed then the names may appear and they may need title to draw specific docs but they handle that on the UW/closing side. Typically it's best to explain your situation up front during the application so that it does not slow your closing down.
Our children are actually both over 18. One of them is our dependent, but the other is not. And they both do not earn any income. But you mentioned that this likely wouldn't be an issue either since it is only for HELOC?
Jason Wray
Banker from Nationwide (Florida)
replied 19 days ago
Yes, that would not cause an issue. As your dependents they are generally just looked at as titled for estate purposes. The underwriter will only look at the income of the applicant on the HELOC. So another words you file jointly with your wife you could use just your income or both incomes since you file jointly. The same thing goes for when they are older and if you decided to give the children the home. Down the road your children could refinance the home if they have been on title for a minimum of (6) months if they have good credit and employment to verify income.
When a parent puts a child on the title it makes it easier for the child/children to inherit the home down the road. You are giving them title seasoning which is important for making the transition easier. Because, when you refinance a home to remove a parent or other person there is no down payment needed and you can wrap up the closing costs into the loan.