If there is no income or gift tax assessed for his portion of the mortgage payments, there may not be any need to add him to the deed. I was thinking we should open a joint bank account and pay the mortgage from that so that there would be a clear trace of monetary contribution in his name. I could also just claim 100% of the deductions and cut my brother a check for half of the tax savings (which should be well within 14k gift tax limit)
He's not on the deed or mortgage now because I acquired a better loan rate applying just by myself. Our loan officer suggested that we could add his name to the deed without issue after closing escrow. Perhaps I should encourage her to have a conversation with the underwriter to confirm.
