Unmarried couple buying a house

Dear Dr. Don,
My boyfriend of almost two years and I are buying a home together, 50/50 with the loan in both our names. Your advice would be what? What kind of lawyer should I contact to draw up "something" to protect both parties? Urgent-please. Thank you.
-- Lynn Live-in

Dear Lynn,
Let's start with the issues in having both of your names on the loan. Over the life of the loan you will both be responsible for the mortgage payments. If one of you leaves, the obligation to make the payments remains for the other.

You also have to decide how you want to own the home. The two most-likely forms of ownership are either: as joint tenants with rights of survivorship where if one of you dies the other inherits, or as tenants in common where if one of you dies, the deceased's share of the house is determined by will; or by the state, if the deceased died without a will.

Beyond the deed and loan issues you should consider what happens if you break up. Who gets to stay? How much time will the person who stays have to arrange financing to buy out the leaving partner? How is the property to be appraised for the buyout? What if one income isn't sufficient to refinance the loan?

At a minimum you need a property agreement, but you might want to consider a living-together contract that would include property-agreement provisions within that contract.

Living-together contracts may not be valid in your state, so you'll need to do a little legwork. Learn more about both on the Living Together channel at NOLO.com.

I'd lean toward consulting with a real estate attorney for a property agreement, but you can consider drawing up these agreements on your own. "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" by attorneys Ralph Warner, Toni Ihara and Frederick Hertz is marketed on the NOLO site and has both a 50-state checklist and 18 basic forms available. It is also a good idea for both of you to have attorneys review any homespun documents.