IS IT POSSIBLE TO AVOID A CLOSING COST WHEN..?

Hi Everyone,

My name is Sid and I live in Detroit/Michigan. I am very new in real estate world, have a very little knowledge about real estate (read a couple of books) but I do have a very strong interest and desire to learn anything that needs to be learned about the subject.
I have found myself in one somewhat confusing situation – at least for me. Here is what is happening; my brother and I own a house for about four years. Since my credit was weak, at the time we were buying a house, he had to be a primary carrier of the mortgage, and, of course, I was a secondary carrier – should I say “secondary borrower”. Now, my brother has a plan to get married and, of course, he wants to move out and get his own house. Now, my/our question is:
Is it possible to take my brother’s name of the title and still leave my name on the title, but this time as a primary carrier of the mortgage – and doing all this without appraising and refinancing the house again? This way, I would just continue paying the mortgage? I hope I did not make this question too confusing. Any suggestions are very welcome and appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!

Sid.

ps: this forum is a great source of info – you guys are great – thanks again!!!

There are 2 issues.

  1. Removing your brother from title

You can get your brother off title by having him sign a quit claim deed and transferring his ownership interest in the property to you. However, in doing this you may violate a due on sale / transfer clause in your mortgage as title will be altered.

  1. Removing your brother as primary borrower. You definately need your lender’s permission on this one.

Hi Jaret,

Thanks a lot for your fast response. In the previous post, I forgot to mention that, the main reason for us doing all this is because my brother would like to eliminate himself from the position of being an investor and get lower interest rate on mortgage. In other words, right now, the lenders consider my brother an investor, because he already has one house on his name and buying another house. Therefore, if my brother could transfer the title and the mortgage on my name, he would not be considered an investor, and could get better interest rate on the next house. I am very sorry if my explanations are complicated, but I try to do my best. As I said before, I have very little knowledge of real estate, so please take that into consideration. I also would like to mention something about the “quit claim deed”. My brother has spoken with one layer here in Detroit about this option, and the layer said that by doing the quit claim deed, my brother would just transfer the title on my name but not the mortgage itself. We will definitely talk to our lender about this and I will let you
know what happened.

2) Removing your brother as primary borrower. You definately need your lender’s permission on this one.
If the lender approves this, is it possible that the lender could request a new appraisal and refinancing?
Thanks a lot everybody for all the info!

Sid.

You can take the route of seeing if you can get a Pre-Approval for a loan. If you can get the necessary financing, then do it as a refinance and in escrow, have him quitclaim the deed to you.