Wanted to help my friend in getting mortgage loan for $240k by adding my name as co applicant. My concerns..?

I trust my friend. I wanted to help him by adding my name as co applicant since my friend has bad credit score and I have good credit score. The advantages for him: 1) he will get lower interest 2) he need not pay property insurance. The insurance is waived off if credit score is good or 20% down payment. He is making 5% as down payment.

1)I have plan to buy home for myself but I am entitled to get loan for only $250k.
a) If I add my name as co applicant in my friends loan, will I have problem in securing loan for my home since I am already in 250k loan.
b) I heard there is tax rebate for the first mortage loan and subsequent mortage loan is treated as investment property. And the second loan wont qualify for tax rebate. Is this true?
c) what if my friend refinances his loan in 6 months and then I apply my mortgage loan. Will I have any problem in getting my loan and my tax rebate(technically this is my 2nd mortgage loan).

To answer your questions.

A. Yes because of the debt incurred on the first mortgage you would have to budget for both payments.

B. Yes it's true.

C. Because it will be the second mortgage you will not qualify for the rebate.

I know you did not ask for opinions but to put it simply, this is a seriously bad idea on several levels.

You are playing with fire by doing this, and probably ruining your ability to get a loan in your own right.

Don't do this! Its nearly impossible to get your name off a note, more so if the co-applicant doesn't qualify for his own loan - or for any reason isn't willing to apply for a new loan.

And as far as co applicants go, they take the middle score of each applicant, so the benefit won't be as much as you think.

Lastly, if you insist, consult with a good lawyer and heed any advice they give you.

1. You are taking major risk. I don't care if you trust him. That is not the point. He could be fired or laid off, become ill, get into a car accident, get sued by someone, etc. and then not be able to make the payments. I am sure you are thinking of all the reasons I am wrong, but at least print this out to look at if this deal goes bad.
2. Your debt ratios will include this mortgage payment and your proposed new mortgage. Do you qualify for a $500,000 mortgage? If not then you will be declined.
3. Sorry, you have a lot of bad info here. Which make me even more convinced you have no idea what you are doing, sorry just my opinion. It is not a tax rebate, but a mortgage interest deduction. What would happen is that if you agreed, the mortgage interest deduction would be taken by your friend. You could take the mortgage deduction on your primary residence.
4. What makes you think your friend could get a refi in 6 months? What if his credit gets worse? I assume you have seen a copy of his credit report and credit score, right. At least say you did that.
5. You should make sure and disclose on the mortgage applicaiton that this not your primary residence, so when the loan defualts the lender won't try to charge you will fraud on the application. Probably would never happen, but again another risk if you lie on the app.
Hope this helps.
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Never co sign for a friend because if you do, he will no longer be your friend. If he defaults on the loan, it will be on your credit file for 7 years. Is it worth that risk?

You NEVER want to cosign on anything of this magnitude, especially if you want to purchase a home for yourself in the near future.

You MAY have a hard time securing a mortgage for a second home because they will look at your debt to income ratios and all that. The way you have to look at it is this....if your friend defaults (he may be more responsible now....we all deserve a second chance from financial mistakes but maybe he did not learn his lesson so be careful)...but if your friend defaults....and you have a mortgage for 250,000 as well.....can you afford the mortgage payments for TWO $250,000 homes? That is how the bank will look at it too. If you can not, and your friend defaults, you could end up losing one of your homes to Foreclosure then which would damage your credit report for a few years and affect your current accounts (universal default rate....credit cards can up your interest rates if you default on ANYTHING they can find out about) so if your friend defaults and you are not able to keep up on both mortgages you will face foreclosure, credit card interest rates skyrocketing, you will see your home owners and car insurances go up to lower FICO scores and them considering you a higher insurance risk and so on.

It is not something I would recommend doing at all....I think it would be a very POOR financial decision to make.

I think ALL interest on the mortgages would be tax deductible BUT you may have to split that between tax returns for your friend and yourself BUT I think the problem you will run into is that you will be taxed higher on your "second home". That is the way it is in Michigan, you pay lower property taxes on your main property (homestead) but you get taxed beyond belief on your second homes (vacation homes, non-homestead they call it in michigan) so you pay MUCH higher property taxes on your second home.

The last question I am not sure about...this would be best asked to a CPA- certified public accountant.