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Mortgage refinance / foreclosure - divorce

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Ellifino
New Contributor

Mortgage refinance / foreclosure - divorce

Hey all,

 

I am looking for some advice on what my options might be as I get divorced.

 

About the house: tax appraisal value is $192,000.  I have lived in this house for four years.  Both the mortgage and the deed are solely in my husband's name, although it was purchased during our marriage and part of the down payment was made with marital funds.  The property taxes here are around $6,000 annually and our homeowner's insurance is $1,000 annually.

 

The existing loan amount is $140,000, so there is some equity in the loan.  And the housing market in this neighborhood is great: within the last two years, two houses in the neighborhood went on sale and both sold within 30 days.  The neighborhood is lovely and it's a desirable school district.

 

About me: I am a medical student with scholarship income and child support income.  My annual scholarship income is $26,500 and my child support income is $3600.  My ex (not the man I am currently divorcing) also helps out with things like after school care, etc, and is willing to up my official child support payments if it would help me include that income with a refinance.  I have another year in a research program and will graduate medical school in 2017, at which point my income as a resident will go up to around $50,000 annually, with an estimated guaranteed $2500 yearly raise.

 

Unfortunately, until a month ago, I had no revolving credit, just student loans and a single collection from 2011 (Sprint, $500).  MyFico lists my Experian at 655, my Equifax at 637, and creditkarma has my Transunion at 623.  I have around $60k in deferred student loans in good standing.  I had a to buy a used car last month, so I looked at my credit for the first time in forever, and realized that the thing that was hurting my score was not having any sort of credit card.  So I went to my bank (Chase) and was approved for a $500 Chase Freedom card (reading the boards, it's funny to me that my very first credit card ever is a Chase Freedom card.)

 

Originally, I was just going to let the house go and let my spouse deal with it, since he's the one who wanted a divorce and he makes 4x what I make and the house is bigger than what I need without him and has a trust fund to boot, but my older kids from my first marriage are very attached to the school district here (orchestra, little league, I'm the room parent for their classrooms, etc.) and there's no rental property or less expensive houses available.

 

Do I have any chance of refinancing the house in my name, assuming he agreed to it (not a sure shot)?  All of my existing savings, which were not much, have gone into paying my attorney, to whom I still owe another couple of thousand dollars.  What if my spouse lets the house go into foreclosure just to try to keep me from being able to stay in it?  We had a verbal agreement for him to make some of the mortgage payments, which he reneged on, so now the existing mortgage is 90 days past due.  Would I be able to talk to the mortgage company if I called, since my name is not on the mortgage?

 

Thanks for any advice anyone has.

Fico Scores: EQ 742 (8/2014), TU 732 (8/2014), EX 731 (8/2014)
Starting Scores: EQ 593 (12/2011)
Goal Score: 750 on all three
My Wallet: Amex BCP $2000 / Chase Freedom $1000 / Chase Slate $2000 / AAFP Bank of America Cash Rewards $1000 / Capital One: $3300 / Amazon Store Card: $1100 / Target: $800 / Walmart: $850 / PayPal SmartConnect: $500
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