Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It is a bad idea to defraud a lender to get a home loan.

While Mr. Roach is correct, it hardly is an answer to your question. The answer is that it would be legal if you do it honestly. The problem is in how to get a lender to loan to you on a house for your father and how to clearly document and deal with the legal and financial rights and responsibilities between the two of you. Difficult but not impossible. The problem is that you are going to have to be the owner of the house or the lender won't loan to you (unless you have such AMAZING credit that you can borrow that much as an unsecured loan). And you will have to remain the owner as long as the loan is in place, because in California 99.999999% of housing loans have to be paid in full upon a transfer of ownership. How you make that work in a way that gets your dad what he wants and protects both of you is somewhat up to you. One option might be for you to buy it and rent it to him at cost. Another might be for you to buy it and then give him a contract for a deed that provides for him to pay you monthly the cost of carrying the loan, and provides for him to pay you in full at such time as he wants the house sold or can refinance in his own name, and then you will deed him the house at that time. There are other options too, but what I have mentioned and any other options are going to be very legally detailed if done right, and could be very damaging to you financially and to your relationship with your dad if done wrong. So you really should get some direct personal legal advice on this before going forward.