Attorney Nicole Vincent discusses how to help a newly divorced mother buy a home

Interviewer: Today we're talking with Laura Nicole Vincent from the law firm Robinson & Henry. Welcome to the show.

Nicole Vincent: Thank you.

Interviewer: Well the topic is real estate and newly divorced moms, and as we were talking in the break, you know, you can kind of empathize with this situation. A couple gets divorced, the mom has devoted her entire life to raising the kids, probably hasn't worked since she first got married, now she's out on her own, probably has to find income and needs to get a house.

Nicole Vincent: Yes, and there're several concerns that, you know, that a newly divorced mom has to worry about, especially in today's economy. A lot of these women are coming out of a marriage with credit problems, and that has to be dealt with when they're applying for a home loan. The best way a realtor can help out this, this client, to help her get a home loan and to get a home, is by talking with her and looking over her separation agreement and the divorce decree, because although her credit report may show that she has a high monthly payments based on payments that they had to make during the marriage, she may not be responsible for these payments any more. For example, let's say during the marriage her husband wanted a new truck, and the car lender wanted her signature on that loan as well. Well, now they're divorced, the husband has the, ex-husband, excuse me, has the truck and the debt that goes along with it, but you wouldn't know that from the credit report. So you can take that, take the separation agreement to the bank, and show that she's no longer responsible for these monthly payments, and that, you know, will show what she, as long as the separation agreement is clear, it will show what she's responsible for monthly.

Interviewer: And the realtor could possibly introduce her to a good loan expert who might be able to establish credit for her for the first time if she doesn't have much. That would be another situation, right?

Nicole Vincent: That would be another situation, and that's another very important situation because in the case where the mom hasn't had a job, or she's been dependent on her ex-husband's income, she may not have credit and it may be very important to her to start establishing credit.

Interviewer: Okay. So now she goes out and gets a job, but it doesn't pay all that much. She hasn't been in the work force a long time. She's an older person trying to get a job. Again, is she stuck?

Nicole Vincent: She's not stuck, she has income in most situations. If she had been married for a long time and she's been dependent on her husband's income, in a lot of cases the court will have ordered alimony, and all the banks and credit card companies will consider that as income, so it's very important that her separation agreement and support order be very clear because that can be supplemental income or it maybe her sole income for the time being, but it's very important and it can be a significant amount of money.

Interviewer: So alimony, maybe child support, maybe the income from the small-paying job maybe enough to qualify.

Nicole Vincent: It very well may be, and if the support order is very clear, then it's easier to show the bank what she's making.

Interviewer: All right, any final other concerns for newly divorced moms we should consider?

Nicole Vincent: The other most important thing to look at is to look at the separation agreement with your client and see if she is restricted on areas. They've made, the courts have made it very complicated for some of these people to move, especially when they have small children. You have to inform the court and your ex that you are moving if it's outside of a certain school district, or if it's outside of a certain metropolitan area. In these cases it's important that the client get a written agreement with the husband that it's okay for her to move out of the metro area, or she has to go to the court to get an order stating that she can move, and that can be quite a lengthy process, and really, all these, you know, all these issues that we're talking about boil down to this separation agreement which can be a very lengthy and very confusing agreement, so it may be a very good idea to get an attorney involved at a very early stage to help either the client or the realtor understand the limitations.

Interviewer: Got it. Good, really appreciate it.

Nicole Vincent: Thank you.

Interviewer: Thanks, Nicole.

Posted on January 29, 2010 12:23:57 by Blog Author