Married couple buy a house, only one is on the title. Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be complicated for a foreign person to own US property. For example, when they sell it, if the sales price is over $300,000, then the buyer generally has to withhold 10% of the purchase price and pay it to the IRS. They may be more likely to owe tax on a sale as well.

Foreigner here. This is not true. I have bought and sold property in the US with no such issues.

There can be ways to avoid issues, but you should google FIRPTA if you really believe there are no special requirements for foreigners selling US real estate.

In fact, pretty much everyone is asked to sign a certification these days that they are a US citizen when selling a house, because that's the first thing to do to avoid FIRPTA withholding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be complicated for a foreign person to own US property. For example, when they sell it, if the sales price is over $300,000, then the buyer generally has to withhold 10% of the purchase price and pay it to the IRS. They may be more likely to owe tax on a sale as well.

Foreigner here. This is not true. I have bought and sold property in the US with no such issues.

There can be ways to avoid issues, but you should google FIRPTA if you really believe there are no special requirements for foreigners selling US real estate.

In fact, pretty much everyone is asked to sign a certification these days that they are a US citizen when selling a house, because that's the first thing to do to avoid FIRPTA withholding.

Keep in mind that "foreign person" means something specific in the context of FIRPTA: for individuals, it refers to NON-RESIDENT aliens. Resident aliens like green card holders and certain visa holders (the specifics of this one get complicated) are not subject to FIRPTA.

[Anonymous]

The house was titled to him first and titled to both of us ten minutes later. The auditor's records tell you who the owners of record are. The title company info might not be complete. online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some PPs got mortgage and title confused. If one spouse has a bad credit score, it may make sense if only the other spouse takes out the mortgage, that is: is liable for the loan. But that does not prevent the spouse with the lousy credit score to be on the title.

In fact, for a married couple this is the smart thing to do. With both spouses on the title you have a "joint tenancy". Should one of you die, the other automatically gets the to be the only owner of the house. The share of the deceased does not go through probate but "dissolves".

Also, in case there will ever be a divorce, you will want to be on the title.

Foreign citizens can be on the title. If they qualify for a mortgage depends on the circumstances. But they still can be on the title, of course.

OP here, thanks for all the responses...

My brother married a foreign citizen a couple years ago, his wife does own a business here in the US (not a law firm!) but she is still not a US citizen. They bought a house a few months ago, a few weeks after they had a baby. Today, I was going to mail a Christmas gift to the baby. I had lost their address (with email/phone/facebook, etc--it's not like I've really used their home address often in the last few months!) so I just googled my brother's name and the name of the town they bought in to see if I could find out the address. The google search gave me a page from the title company they used, which showed the address and only listed my brother's name, not his wife's. I just thought that was odd.

I know with my husband and I--I am SAHM with technically no income--so his name is the only one on the mortgage, but both of our names are on the title--specifically because of what the PP I quote said--if my Dh was to die, I don't want to "inherit" the house and have to pay an inheritance tax, etc. on it.

You are nosey Get life!

[Anonymous]

We're have the arrangement where my wife and I are both on the title and I'm the only one on the mortgage. It's a risk for me, but I'm pretty much broke anyway.

[Anonymous]

Certain religions do not permit women to the same stature as men. Usually these are the fringe muslim groups from places like saudi and iran.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes the paperwork just gets screwed up and nobody catches it too. I had a newborn when we bought our vehicle so DH did all the legwork himself and only his name ended up on the title. Upside--he has to go to DMV to deal with it, not me.

[Anonymous]

Joint tenancy is a crime.
Consider a case where 2 buy together, unmarried. Split later. Man eventually marries and raises a family and does a lot of repairs and builds an addition. Gets sick unexpectedly with brain cancer. The widow and children have to leave as it belongs to the ex and is hers.

If only people were not stupid, but they are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Joint tenancy is a crime.
Consider a case where 2 buy together, unmarried. Split later. Man eventually marries and raises a family and does a lot of repairs and builds an addition. Gets sick unexpectedly with brain cancer. The widow and children have to leave as it belongs to the ex and is hers.

If only people were not stupid, but they are

There is a lot of dumb going on in that scenario but joint tenancy is not all of it. First of all, if you buy as an unmarried couple, you can either choose to buy as joint tenants or as tenants in common. No one forces you into joint tenancy. Second, once they split, they should have had an agreement for him to buy her share of the house (in fact, that agreement should have been in writing before they bought at all.) Why did the ex leave her half of the house when she left? Was the mortgage in her name, too? Then the husband should have been forced to refinance. Why did the new wife never pay attention to any of this? Was she comfortable living in a house that wasn't hers and was half-owned by someone she never met? Why?

Dumb dumb dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Joint tenancy is a crime.
Consider a case where 2 buy together, unmarried. Split later. Man eventually marries and raises a family and does a lot of repairs and builds an addition. Gets sick unexpectedly with brain cancer. The widow and children have to leave as it belongs to the ex and is hers.

If only people were not stupid, but they are

Wait, are you saying the law (joint tenancy) is the problem or is it "stupid" people who buy a house with someone they're not married to, have that partner move out and then get married to someone else and have them move in without taking care of the paperwork?

[Anonymous]

The unlimited marital deduction is not available to non-citizens, without some fancy estate planning hoops to jump through, so this may be a factor.

I also think sometimes just the husband's name is on the title because the breadwinning husband is a controlling jerk.

[Anonymous]

Note that sometimes the online records only list the first name from the title; you have to dig deeper to see any other(s).

[Anonymous]

OP, I am a SAHM too and I am still on the mortgage AND title. Oh and we own as tenants by the entirety too. Our title company f'd this up, tried to tell us it didn't matter and we refused to sign until they fixed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some PPs got mortgage and title confused. If one spouse has a bad credit score, it may make sense if only the other spouse takes out the mortgage, that is: is liable for the loan. But that does not prevent the spouse with the lousy credit score to be on the title.

In fact, for a married couple this is the smart thing to do. With both spouses on the title you have a "joint tenancy". Should one of you die, the other automatically gets the to be the only owner of the house. The share of the deceased does not go through probate but "dissolves".

Also, in case there will ever be a divorce, you will want to be on the title.

Foreign citizens can be on the title. If they qualify for a mortgage depends on the circumstances. But they still can be on the title, of course.

OP here, thanks for all the responses...

My brother married a foreign citizen a couple years ago, his wife does own a business here in the US (not a law firm!) but she is still not a US citizen. They bought a house a few months ago, a few weeks after they had a baby. Today, I was going to mail a Christmas gift to the baby. I had lost their address (with email/phone/facebook, etc--it's not like I've really used their home address often in the last few months!) so I just googled my brother's name and the name of the town they bought in to see if I could find out the address. The google search gave me a page from the title company they used, which showed the address and only listed my brother's name, not his wife's. I just thought that was odd.

I know with my husband and I--I am SAHM with technically no income--so his name is the only one on the mortgage, but both of our names are on the title--specifically because of what the PP I quote said--if my Dh was to die, I don't want to "inherit" the house and have to pay an inheritance tax, etc. on it.

OP, is this is the source of your question, you may just be mistaken. online records sometimes list only one owner. I checked the online record of our home, and it only lists my husband as the owner, even though we are both on the deed (and on the mortgage). I checked our neighbors and again only one spouse is listed. so your SIL might aw well be on the title even though the online record does not reflect that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Joint tenancy is a crime.
Consider a case where 2 buy together, unmarried. Split later. Man eventually marries and raises a family and does a lot of repairs and builds an addition. Gets sick unexpectedly with brain cancer. The widow and children have to leave as it belongs to the ex and is hers.

If only people were not stupid, but they are

There is a lot of dumb going on in that scenario but joint tenancy is not all of it. First of all, if you buy as an unmarried couple, you can either choose to buy as joint tenants or as tenants in common. No one forces you into joint tenancy. Second, once they split, they should have had an agreement for him to buy her share of the house (in fact, that agreement should have been in writing before they bought at all.) Why did the ex leave her half of the house when she left? Was the mortgage in her name, too? Then the husband should have been forced to refinance. Why did the new wife never pay attention to any of this? Was she comfortable living in a house that wasn't hers and was half-owned by someone she never met? Why?

Dumb dumb dumb.

good questions.
I think they planned to sell the house together, but he needed to live in it for some time, but never did. New wife assumed it was his house.
Mortgage was joint