Paying mortgage on home owned by my mother's estate. How to get it to show on my credit report?

[Anonymous]

My siblings and I inherited my mother's home when she died two and a half years ago.  I am the Executor/Personal Representative for her estate.  I moved into my mother's home six years ago after she became ill, in order to take care of her.  I have continued to live there and have been paying the mortgage since her death.  Actually, I have "technically" been paying the mortgage from the beginning since the payment has always been taken automatically from an account owned jointly by my mother and me. The only change since her death is that I transfer money each month from my primary bank account to the joint account to cover the mortgage payment.  I have been "gardening" my credit for the past couple years to position myself to qualify for a new loan to buy out my siblings and pay off the current mortgage.  The only thing missing from my credit record is a mortgage loan.  Even though I have been faithfully making mortgage payments for several years, they don't show up on my credit report because the loan is only in my mother's name.  

How can I get my credit reports and FICO score to reflect the perfect payment record I have had on this mortgage? 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the board.  Unfortunately, you can't have it report on your report although you have been making payments.  The house is under your mother's name and not your name.  The best way to have it report on your reports is to buy your siblings out and have it as "your house".  The fact that you make payments does not mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the reply.  I knew that only credit that is in my name or listing me as a cosigner or authorized user will show up on my credit report.  But I thought that maybe, since I am the Personal Representative for her Estate and therefore responsible for ensuring that bills, such as the mortgage, continue to be paid on time, there would be a way to reflect the positive (or negative) credit behavior on my report.   Otherwise, what's to keep me from falling a month or two behind in mortgage payments if it doesn't reflect on my credit rating? 

I appreciate the suggestion to buy out my siblings and have it as "my house."  That's exactly my plan.  That's the reason I want to have the mortgage I've been paying show up on my credit report: so that its positive impact on my credit score would make me eligible for lower mortgage interest rates.

[DallasLoanGuy]

you arent obligated on the loan? then it wont report on you

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for the reply.  I knew that only credit that is in my name or listing me as a cosigner or authorized user will show up on my credit report.  But I thought that maybe, since I am the Personal Representative for her Estate and therefore responsible for ensuring that bills, such as the mortgage, continue to be paid on time, there would be a way to reflect the positive (or negative) credit behavior on my report.   Otherwise, what's to keep me from falling a month or two behind in mortgage payments if it doesn't reflect on my credit rating? 

I appreciate the suggestion to buy out my siblings and have it as "my house."  That's exactly my plan.  That's the reason I want to have the mortgage I've been paying show up on my credit report: so that its positive impact on my credit score would make me eligible for lower mortgage interest rates.

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Actually, it likely wouldn't with the way FICO works and the versions used for mortgage purposes.

For both EQ and TU if you have any installment loan at all, open or closed, you're fine.  EX getting the mortgage on there might not be to your benefit depending on what the current balance is on it.

If you don't have any installment loans, go get a share secured loan from Alliant or similar and then prepay most of it to pretty up EX and any credit mix issues on EQ/TU for a trivial amount: no need to have an auto loan or a mortgage for pretty FICO scores.

[pipeguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My siblings and I inherited my mother's home when she died two and a half years ago.  I am the Executor/Personal Representative for her estate.  I moved into my mother's home six years ago after she became ill, in order to take care of her.  I have continued to live there and have been paying the mortgage since her death.  Actually, I have "technically" been paying the mortgage from the beginning since the payment has always been taken automatically from an account owned jointly by my mother and me. The only change since her death is that I transfer money each month from my primary bank account to the joint account to cover the mortgage payment.  I have been "gardening" my credit for the past couple years to position myself to qualify for a new loan to buy out my siblings and pay off the current mortgage.  The only thing missing from my credit record is a mortgage loan.  Even though I have been faithfully making mortgage payments for several years, they don't show up on my credit report because the loan is only in my mother's name.  

How can I get my credit reports and FICO score to reflect the perfect payment record I have had on this mortgage? 

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This is not as easy as making payments, as an estate asset the property is part of probate and I think after 2.5 years it should have been settled by now. As an estate asset 100% of the mortgage, insurance  and tax payments should be refunded to you once the asset is sold. As far as you living there you can charge yourself fair market rent and utilities of the estate asset. As PR you are responsable for maintaining the property in good condition so repairs, etc should also be credited back to you. You can buy the property at fair market value, but you are kind of in a tough spot because you have to pay OFF the other heirs.

The process will vary depending on the state (most don't have estate taxes anymore - some do depending on the total value of the estate). You really need a probate attorney to dot the eyes. As PR you need to move this process along and while you'll get "paid" by the estate, you can NOT proceed with a real or perceived conflict of interest by delaying  the process until you can qualify for a mortgage on your own. By the way ANY funds held in a joint account between your mother and you at the time of her death, belong 100% to the surviving owner - in other words what ever money was in the joint account belongs to you outside of the estate and probate (subject to terms of the will which usually don't specify jointly held bank accounts.

I'm not an attoney however I settled my Father's estate (all assets went to my mother) and my mother's estate (last year). You really need to work with a good attorney and move this process forward after 2.5 years.