Dennis
You have some good advice hear.

My strongest suggestion is to get the facts BEFORE you do anything. And yes, that includes contacting the lender.

In the short term as long as you keep making the mortgage payments, you should be okay. However, in the long term, you need to establish your name as the owner. One possibility is to ask the lender for a loan modification, only changing your name. You would have to re-qualify...prove that you can pay the mortgage.

Dennis,

There is no way you can remove her name from the current loan, you will have to get a new one just on your name. The good news is that interest rates are very attractive right now. The bad news is that by qualifying alone you might not be as attractive to the lender, hence the terms might not be the best.

But before making any final decision make sure you have considered all the aspects of your decision, including if the title will be only in your name or both. Some professional advice might be a good idea.

Good luck!

Dennis
Speak with your attorney. You will need to refinance to remove your wife from title and the mortgage Note. She will need to execute a Quit Claim Deed at that time. If you wish or need to provide her any equity payout then I would suggest completing the divorce papers with your attorney. There are mortgage loan programs available to payout equity to her at no additional cost if they stipulated in the papers. You may also want to speak with a mortgage broker to make sure to qualify.
Wishing you the best
Suzanne Clark

Hi Dennis,

Don't go refinancing ANYTHING until you talk with your divorce attorney!

I am not a practicing attorney. I am a realtor as are most all of us here on Trulia.

What you need is Sound Legal advice at this point before talking about any refinance situation.

Best of luck to you,

Stew Keene - Inspire Realty Group

Hi Dennis,

Sorry to hear about the split. Unfortunately if she wants her name off the loan you are going to have to basically refinance using only your name and income. Lenders will not let you just remove a person from the loan because they lent you the money based on both people's income and credit. Hopefully you didn't buy (or refinance) in the last couple of years and have some equity. With the recent decline in market there have been a lot of incidences where people don't have the option of refinancing due to loan to value ratios.

If you would like to contact me regarding this or any other issue I would be happy to answer any other questions... By the way, I am also a Loan Originator so I may be able to help.

Todd Lee