<prompt> Human: I have been with my girlfriend for 8 years and we have a great stable relationship. Her mother owns a house and is struggling to make payments on her mortgage. After speaking with realtorslooking at recent sales prices of houses around her neighborhood, she figures she can sell her house and come up on top with 150k after paying off what she owes on the house. She would like to use that money and buy a smaller less expensive townhouse that she can afford. The issue is that she does not have good enough credit to take out a mortgage to buy this less expensive house. She recently approached me to ask if I can help cosign a mortgage with her to buy the townhouse and that she will be the only one paying for the townhouse. Considering all the pitfalls of this ie. What if she loses her job, what if I lose my job, I ultimately do not want to be responsible for a townhouse, etc. we ended the discussion about cosign for a townhouse. Another option that came up, was to cosign to refinance the mortgage for her house. I have the same concerns about cosigning with her above, but her house is in a nice neighborhood and is not underwater so it seems like this is a less risky proposition. Again, she will be the only one paying the mortgage. She has a stable job that she has worked at the same company for the last 15 years. She is going to ask her lender after this weekend about how much lower her interest rates will be if I cosign a refinance mortgage with her. I know next to nothing about mortgages. Going off of google, I have the following concerns that PF might be able to answer.1. I am currently building up my savings to put a down payment to buy a house in 3-4 years. Being that I will be a first time house owner, how will having me cosign a mortgage affect my first time home owner tax credit? Will I lose that tax credit if I cosign with her?2. How will having a mortgage affect my chances of securing my own mortgage when I first buy a house? Will having this high debt this mortgage to income ration will hurt my chances? I currently have 0 debt, but I dont a credit history of large purchases. I always purchased my vehiclesbig dollar items in cash, but for almost everything else, I use my credit card.3. I dont want to be on the hook on a 30 year or however long mortgage, but I do feel less apprehensive about it since it is tied to a house in a very desirable and expensive city. How concern should I be about this?4. PF, is there anything else that I should consider. Im basically flying blind.Thanks  <response>: I would not do this. A better idea may be for her to sell, bank 150k, and rent while rebuilding her credit. After a few years of building her credit, 150k or more should be fine to buy something 