<prompt> Human: Hello PF, long time lurker but first time posting here.Me 26M and wife 26 have a housingrent dilemma. We live with her mother and have no official agreement on rent, we just help pay bills. She was paying a family member for this house, stopped paying, and he is threatening to kick us all out. She went and spoke to someone about a mortgage, and basically wants us not to cosign, but say that we pay 500 in rent a month so that shows her as having more income she has no actual income, just child support. My big issue with this, is with us planning to move out and get our own place, is that mortgage guy wants our w2s, and pretty much any information pertaining to income. And I believe this will show up on our credit report as a debt, making it harder for us to get our own place due to our debtincome ratio being higher. Is this true? The whole situation seems fishy.  <response>: Lying to her lender is called mortgage fraud, and is a crime. DO NOT commit mortgage fraud. If you want to formalize your agreement with her and actually start paying 500 a month in rent instead of helping with the bills, then that is entirely up to you. If she cant get the mortgage without showing rental income, then this is a pretty big red flag that she should not be trying to buy this house. You and your wife will almost certainly eventually want to move out, and then shell be missing the income and wont be able to afford the house. 