Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

Re: Home buying

A home is probably the most significant investment one will make in his or her lifetime, and you are right to take issues of ownership seriously.

The first thing I would suggest is that you hire a real estate attorney to work with you on the purchase of your home, as attorneys can protect your deposits and other interests, and negotiate favorable contingencies and terms on your behalf throughout the process.

Assume for a moment that you were married. Upon dissolution of your marriage, your home/equity would be considered part of the marital estate, along with the rest of you property, and would be subject to equitable division by the court.

Because you are not married, you do not have the benefit or protections of divorce and equitable distribution. In this case, you and your girlfriend may want to execute some form of Partnership Agreement. The Agreement can be limited to ownership and issues relating to the home, or can address larger relationship issues such as responsibility for debt acquired by each of you during the relationship, automobiles, etc.

It would be worth speaking to an attorney in your area about these issues before taking the leap.

Re: Home buying

As noted in the other response, you need to set up a contract to memorialize all of your understandings with regard to the house, including how one of you can "cash out" or force the sale of the real estate, and on what schedule, if you break up. Likewise, if you can't share expenses 50-50, how to address increases in equity (or decreases, for that matter).

This could be a real mess. Does it really make sense to do it at this point, or should you wait until you know whether your relationship will be "permanent"?

If you are going to do it, you should think of it as an investment between two parties at arm's length, and not assume that you will always be a couple. Ideally, you each should have legal representation. Once the agreement is ironed out, you should have an attorney represent you in the purchase, just as you would with any such business deal of significant magnitude.

Speaking from experience, I have represented a buyer whose "significant other" bailed shortly before closing, and it can get messy. Think long and hard before you put such a financial concern on top of everything else...

If one of you would like to speak with an attorney, please feel free to contact me. Note that an attorney would only be able to represent one of you in drafting the agreement because of potential conflict. Before you speak with an attorney, do your collective best to sit down with each other (and or an accountant) and work out what should happen in different scenarios (separation, sickness, death, unemployment, lawsuit/attachment, marriage, need for major repairs, etc.) Of course, in looking at how much money you'll need for purchase, you should allow even more "cushion" because of the possible need to carry the other for some period of time...

Re: Home buying

I would suggest you enter into an agreement with each other indicating that you both put up half the money and that although the Note will be in her name, you will pay half of the payments on the note and mortgage.

Title to the property should be put in both names, you should be on the Mortgage but not on the note. the bank should not object to this.

Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions.