#31–You’re Getting a Divorce! But What About Your House?

SUMMARY Child welfare attorney Susan Chesnutt and Certified Divorce Lending Professional, Michael Schreiber discuss the options for dividing your biggest asset, your home, during a divorce.  ------------------------------  HIGHLIGHTS [01:14] Introduction to Michael Schreiber and what a CDLP, Certified Divorce Lending Professional, does to help homeowners divide their assets during divorce.  [5:14] Michael explains the 3 options for dividing the marital home  [6:26] Susan and Michael discuss the things that people need to be aware of to qualify for a mortgage when getting a divorce and dividing their assets.  [12:58] Michael explains how debt to income ratio works and how it impacts how you qualify for a mortgage with a bank.  [18:20] Michael talks about getting creative with QDRO’s – Qualified Domestic Relations Orders – which are used to divide and pay out retirement assets.  [22:30] Michael and Susan discuss the possibility of refinancing a VA loan during the divorce process.  [27:10] Michael describes reverse mortgages and how they can be leveraged during divorce.  [29:30) Michael shares information about the Divorce Lending Association and the tools that they offer families that are getting divorced. [40:00) Susan shares stories about challenging divorce scenarios when families were struggling with their options to sell and buy new homes. Michael provides insight and commentary into each situation.  ------------------------------  QUOTES 1:29“I am proud to say that I am a certified divorce lending professional, which is a designation held by less than 1% of mortgage professionals.”  5:17 “So essentially when it comes to the marital home, there are three options: One is you sell the marital home, split the proceeds, two - You buy out the equity in your spouse's interest in the home, or three is the reverse. Your spouse buys out your equity interest in the home.”  6:30“Qualified income is your employment income, your retirement income, your pension income, social security, or disability income. Those are the obvious things. And typically a lender's going to look for at least two years of proof of that. You've had that income and then where the divorce comes into play is supporting.And that's a big deal because a lot of people do qualify based on alimony and or child support. The trick is that you have to show stability of that income and continuance.”  10:00 “So what happens is an underwriter needs to show a paper trail because money is put into a joint account.It's really hard to see that it came from the soon to be ex-spouse, it's meant to go to the person who's applying for the mortgage of proving that. And a lot of times it's hard to get cooperation from the soon to be ex, Hey, we need to show your bank account that shows this money came out and it's the amount for support and it's much, much easier when you open your own bank account, have that support put right into that account, easy peasy for a tracking purposes.” 19:38 “What you want to do is first of all, make sure of your debt-to-income ratios net, make sure of your credit score. Absolutely get pre-qualified and most important is I've said a few times, make sure you surround yourself with a good team that not only has your best interest at heart and is talented, but also that's compassionate and understands your goals.” 40:00 “My job is to be honest with you and say, this is what you can do. Here's your options or. This is what you can't do. And sometimes, that's the hard answer, but again, the last thing we want to do is set anyone up for problems down the road. You have to know that you can afford what it is you're trying to do.  ------------------------------  RESOURCES The Chesnutt Law Firm: https://www.thechesnuttlawfirm.com/ The Che