Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Massachusetts

I hate to say it, but I think you have more or less answered your own question. Why would a banker want to extend credit to a group of people with terrible credit? It can be very difficult to get credit when the parties are unrelated. Moreover, wouldn't your siblings have to buy the condominiums essentially from you for you to be able to pay off your loan? They would have to be creditworthy to do that. So I think you are looking at refinance. This might be a better question for a mortgage broker.

If you want an off the wall "legal" solution...

...with the consent of your siblings, you might consider trying to convert the property from a three family dwelling into a housing cooperative. A housing cooperative is similar in outward appearances to a condominium unit. Its internal works, however, are much different. The way it works is that each unit-owner is a shareholder in an entity (e.g. an LLC) that owns the property. Each unit owner is then given a lease that attaches to the ownership of the unit shares. The advantage to this is that the Co-op, as a corporate entity, can borrow money on the property.

The disadvantages are many: it is hard to alienate the property, for one thing. In Massachusetts, owners of so-called "close" corporations owe each other a duty (called a fiduciary duty) so the utmost care must be taken in dealings with fellow owners. There are limits on how much a co-op can "earn" so if one or all of you wants to tenant an apartment, consider what your rental income might be as against your prospective debt obligations. Likewise, it can be hard to get financing.

Also an issue is that your mortgage company might voice some objections, if possible pursuant to the terms of the loan, to your corporate ownership.

That said, if you get along well with your sisters, and think it would be good to own property with them in an extremely intimate way (they take care of the property and themselves, are generally upstanding aside from the credit issues, are easy to resolve problems with) there may be some real benefit in it for you.

I would be happy to talk with you more about it on the phone.