I've been paying my parent's mortgage payment of $1k for past 3 years but have not asked mortgage company to report in my SSN. (The mortgage interest tax deduction would be the same whether on mine or my parent's taxes.) Now I'm looking to purchase my own house. My credit is only mediocre (FICO 620-640) after some cleanup. My question is- if I change reporting for my parent's mortgage (currently in it's 18th year of 30-year mortgage) to my CR: 1. How will this affect my FICO score? Will my CR show a TL with 18 years of positive notations, or will it start from scratch for this account? 2. Will having that other mortgage TL on my CR, will that prevent lender's from wanting to give me a new mortgage? Will that TL prevent me from having "first time homeowner" status, or does that not matter? I'm looking for mortgage around $2500/month. My parents mortgage is $1000/month. My income is $12,000/month, same job and address for past 3 years. So should I or should I not switch the mortgage reporting from my parent's CR to mine?
