You have a spouse, and you want to buy a home. You both apply for a loan. It’s accepted by the bank.

Not only are you co-applicants, but you’re now co-owners. Well, not technically. Technically, the bank owns your house, and both co-owners spend the duration of their loan paying it off. Once your loan is paid off, then you are now co-owners…unless you don’t pay your property taxes. Then another owner can come in and buy it at auction.

Co-owners have a percentage of an asset, according to their ownership agreement. There can be many of them, or few of them. The general rule, however, is to never go into business with your family. They’re the worst, remember? And the easiest way to ruin a friendship is to go into business together as co-owners of virtually anything, especially if one of you is really passionate about the industry and the other just wants to get paid regardless of market conditions.

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Finance: What is a Co-signer?7 Views

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Finance a la shmoop what is a cosigner? well it's just this oh wait

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that goes in the trigonometry video people why don't you do this all right [Man discussing trigonometry]

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never mind cosigner it's this... okay all right we're in finance so a cosigner is

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this there we go it's your mom you really wanted that

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condo with the nice view of the park the cool arts district and the local dentist [Dentist office building]

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office nearby for some weird reason but the building owners just didn't trust

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you alone to make the payments yourself which makes sense given that you're a

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part-time barista who takes at least one sick day every week you blame them so [Sick days marked on calendar]

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your condo dream seems a well a bit out of reach luckily for you the bomb

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or Bank of mom came in handy when she co-signed the loan along with you all [Mum signing loan agreement]

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right what does that co-signing mean well it means that you are the first one

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obliged to pay the monthly payments on your loan but if you don't well then the

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Bank of America way bigger than the bank of mom can come after mom and she is

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directly legally obligated to pay the loans that you promised - hey so yeah

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you got your condo dream but mom's living quarters aren't so spacious yeah [Mum laying in a car backseat]

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well you made her co-sign for your deadbeat self hanging her butt up to dry

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and now she's well enjoying the view from her SUV parked on the curb of the [SUV window winds down and Mum appears]

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road outside the dentist hang in there mom you'll get a better

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parking lot slot with a view someday

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)