All Forum Posts by: Sarah Msuya

Hello everyone,

I am brand new to Bigger Pockets and my journey as a real estate investor.

I own my primary residence in Maine under my maiden name.

I assumed (incorrectly) that changing the deed to reflect my married name would be a relatively straight forward process.

I have gotten conflicting opinions and answers looking online, calling title companies, speaking to the city hall and registry of deeds; they are as follows:

1. Do a quitclaim deed. It’s something I can do myself or have an attorney do. I’m wondering

-how difficult these are to do yourself

-what the risk is if something was done incorrectly (given that the warranty deed is in my maiden name either way).

2. Have an attorney and title company create a new warranty deed. With this option:

-has anyone done this and about how much did it cost? is it worth to have the warranty deed over a quitclaim deed if the only thing changing is my legal name?

I've been in banking for 10 years and know little things like a name not matching could cause delays in processes. I am trying to save money, educate myself and make sure all my finances are in order to be as bank ready as possible for my first real estate investment property. I may use my primary residence to take out a HELOC or refinance.

I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this or if this is something that will cause headaches later on.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Sarah Msuya

@Ivan Maldonado

Good morning Ivan,

You had mentioned you owned your car, but it's negatively effecting your DTI. So I'm going to go under the assumption that you are still paying on a car loan and don't own it outright yet.

If that’s the case, then how much is your car payment?

The short nonspecific answer is you should refinance your car loan into a HELOC or have them factor into your new mortgage and pay off the car as a condition of closing.

The way DTI works - anything credit reportable the bank will see and use. If you can explain it away by refinancing into the new loan or paying off at closing then it can be overlooked as long as those conditions are met.

Option 2, increase income. Outside of that, there’s no way around it on the residential lending side of the house.