What are the implications of becoming a cosigner on a mortgage?
There are at least two risks here. First, as discussed, if your parents were to encounter difficulties in making payments, you would be more-or-less forced to help. Second, if your parents were to sell the house (for example, one of them became ill and went to a nursing home), and the value of the house was not sufficient to pay off the mortgage, then you would be liable for the difference. The likelihood of the second depends a lot on the part of the country your parents live in (have house prices risen a lot there?), and whether or not housing prices really are in a bubble of some sort in some places in the country (for example, most of California). Personally, I’d put this in the category of “my parents have done a lot for me, and now it’s time for me to do something for them”, since I don’t see the risks as overwhelming, but that’s a personal opinion, of course. And it’s not at all clear why you would want your name on the title of the house. If you end up making payments and want
