I have a loan through a hard money lender that we are refinancing into a conventional mortgage.
The problem I am having is that the note with the hard money lender is in my name. We want to refinance the property and put it in my wife’s name.
The lender we are using is saying there is a fannie mae guideline that says that my wife must be on the note in order to refinance the loan. My hard money lender is giving me a hard time saying we will have to pay down the LTV and they might be able to make an exception but they are being difficult.
We then thought to just let my wife buy it outright from me but the lender didn’t think that would work either. We need to get the property from the hard loan in my name to a conventional mortgage in my wifes name.
Your wife has to be on the title to refinance it. However Fannie Mae does not have seasoning on title or value. I am working with a customer that is having the same issue. All you do is draw up a warranty deed adding the wife to the deed. Get it signed and notarized, then file it with the county. I highly recommend that you drive it to the courthouse yourself and pay for it to be an expedited recording. Otherwise it can take a couple of weeks to get recorded and have it show up on title. Once this is done your wife can refinance the property. Right now she is not on title so she does not have ownership, and you can’t refinance something you don’t own. It does not matter if she is on the note or not. This is a very simple process. I am surprised your lender would not have run into this before if they familiar with investment property financing.
Yes you would think they would have heard of this before, however I have not had good luck with the 2 hard money lenders I have used in the Houston area. One ran out of money in the middle of the closing and this one I am working with now acts very arrogant and condescending toward me.
They said " I should have known who was on the title since I signed the paperwork at closing".
I don’t understand some peoples attitude toward their customers.
Instead of refinancing, let your wife take out a new mortgage and “purchase” the property. You want to put her name on it and you want the loan in her name. That is what she is effectively doing: buying the house.
If you change or alter the title in any way, the Hard Money Lender most likely can call your loan. There is standard language in most loan docs for that purpose. Do not add your wife to the deed until you read your docs.
All he has to do is call the hard money lender and explain what he is doing. If they have a problem with it he is refinancing and paying off the note so if it gets called due it will be paid off. Contrary to popular belief hard money lenders don’t want the houses especially in this market. I work with several hard money lenders and they are looking for help to get people refinanced and off their books. Not foreclosing. They want their money back pronto.
Chances are the HML would not be against adding a new guarantor to the documents.
Have her added to the VOM (Verification of Mortgage payment history) and the payoff from the HML.
Explain to the HML if you have to why you need this done. As soon as they hear that you need it in order to pay them off, they will make it happen for you more than likely.
Sure, have the person added to the mortage, the note, VOM, and payoff. If she signs the note, then she is financially obligated to pay just as much as you are.
Its true that you dont have a new mortgage and note recorded with her name that it could be viewed as fraudulent.
The best bet is always to check with an attorney (which I am obviously not) before structuring real estate deals.
Well after no action from my HML and many delays from the lender in finding a solution to this problem, we went with a different lender. They had no problem with my name only being on the note. Waiting for the final approval now. I won’t hold my breath though.
Don’t sweat it. Like I told you when we spoke the programs are out there. That was a lender specific issue or a broker specific issue. Did you end up adding her to the title using a warranty deed?