Financial Advice Needed

[Anonymous]

So to get to the gist of things. I am 28 years old still living with my parents and younger siblings (Asian house hold). We have liveed in an apartment for as far as I rmember and my parents never owned a home before. They want to buy a home now but their credit isn't that great and never was good at managing their finances (info below). 

Now they are working on finding a lender to work with them. As for me, if I were to be the core person to take out the loan (with my parents co-signing/co-borrowing). Or vise-versa, they take out the loan and I co-sign with them.

How will this effect me? Obvious, the debt to income ratio will skew terribly for me. But will it pretty much prevent me from taking out any future [Car] Loans in the near future?

If I were to assume the loan (FMA Loan), after 2-3 years. Can we refiance and have me be removed from the loan? And have my parents assume the loan solely on their own?

Terrible question to ask and I really do want to help my parents as much as I can. I just don't want to make a terrible choice that impacts me the rest of my life.

Parents Combined Incoming: $70,000

Age: Both 51

Their Individual Credit Scores: 584 and 604 each

Total Credit Line: $6,600

Currently Paying for Rent: $1,140 (due to increase to $1200-ish this year)

No other loans but lots of Revolving Credit Card Bills. Car Loan paid last month.

My income: $33,000

Age: 28

Their Individual Credit Scores: 730+ Range

Total Credit Line: $17,400

Student Loans: $4,300

Car Lease: $2,398 (Lease ends September of this year, plan to take loan to purchase).

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Not exactly sure how car loan lenders factor in debt on the credit report.  They run calculations to determine if your income can afford the payment (and perhaps other debt listed on the credit report), but from my experience it hasn't been terribly strict (or I've just been lucky).  For non-mortgage credit, it'd be best if you asked in the specific category the credit would fit within at Types of Credit. 

As far as qualifying for a mortgage is concerned, if you are a co-signer on someone else's mortgage (or any other debt for that matter), then to exclude it the primary borrower would need to have made payments for at least 12 months from their own account (an account you are not on) and all payments for the past 12 months must have been made on time.

If your parents qualify, then they can refinance the loan on their own.  If multiple people are on a loan and you want to remove one or more of them from being obligated to it (without refinancing), there is something called a "Novation Agreement", but lenders rarely do those from what I've seen.