THE ORIGINALDIVORCE HOUSING STRATEGY PLATFORM | built by the founder of the CDLP® designation EST. 2014
Before you decide what happens to the house, find out what will actually work.
You are making the biggest financial decision of your life during the hardest season of it. You should not have to make it blind.
In divorce, the home is the largest asset, and the mortgage is usually the last thing anyone checks. We help you know, before you sign, whether you can keep it, refinance it, or need a different plan.
Book your free Strategy Review →
20 minutes. Confidential. No cost, no card, no sales pitch. Conducted by a CDLP®.
The most overlooked mistake in divorce
The house is the largest asset. The mortgage is the last thing evaluated.
Settlement agreements don't fail on paper. They fail in execution, months later, when a lender's underwriting guidelines don't match what was negotiated. By then, the options have narrowed.
A spouse is awarded a home that they ultimately can't refinance.
Support income doesn't qualify the way it was assumed.
Equity is divided without modeling the financing impact.
Future homeownership is unknowingly compromised.
If the mortgage doesn’t work… the settlement doesn’t work.
I built this because of my own divorce. I watched settlements that looked fine on paper fall apart in real life, mine included, because nobody checked whether the housing decisions actually worked under real lending rules.
So I founded the Divorce Lending Association and created the Certified Divorce Lending Professional® (CDLP®) designation. I don't train professionals what to do. I train them how to think about your whole situation. More than 25 years in, every piece of it still comes back to one question: will this actually work for the person who has to live with it?
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Book a free consult if any of this sounds familiar.
- You've been told you can keep the home, but you're not sure if it actually works.
- You're trying to make decisions without complete financial clarity.
- You don't know how support, debt, or equity will affect your options.
- You're divorcing and own real property, and refinance may be required.
- You want clarity before signing, not after.
The Only Report of Its Kind
The Divorce Mortgage Planning Report™
Not a loan estimate. Not a pre-qualification. A structured analytical roadmap built by a Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP®) using the four-phase Mortgage Capacity Mapping™ framework, the same report your attorney, mediator, and financial neutral can use in mediation, drafting, and litigation.
PHASE 1
Property Feasibility Analysis
PHASE 2
Income Qualification Structuring
PHASE 3
Debt Allocation Impact Modeling
PHASE 4
Equity & Cash Flow Solutions Engineering
See what’s in the report › Developed by the Divorce Lending Association. Produced exclusively by CDLP® professionals.
State-Specific Guidance
Divorce law is different in every state.
Your guidance should be too.
Whether you're in a community property state or an equitable distribution state changes how the home and the mortgage get divided. Pick your state for guidance built around your local rules, lender environment, and tax quirks, or browse all 50.
Find your state
Browse all 50 statesThe Risk Isn't the House. It's the Unverified Plan.
Most divorce housing decisions are made on assumptions: assumed refinance approval, assumed support income, assumed budgets. The house itself is rarely the problem. The unverified plan around it is.
Verification before signing is the difference between a settlement that works on paper and one that works in real life.
People who found out in time.
"I came in convinced I could keep the house. The roadmap walked me through why I couldn't, at least not the way the settlement was being written. I would rather have learned that for $47 than for $47,000 a year from now."
Sarah M., metro Atlanta
"I went into mediation with real numbers instead of hopes. That alone changed everything. I stopped agreeing to things I didn't fully understand and started asking the questions I should have been asking from day one."
Lauren K., Phoenix
"I was about to sign off on a buyout that would have wrecked my ability to refinance later. Sixty minutes of structured questions caught it. I'm not great at math and not great at finance, and this made it make sense."
David R., Raleigh, NC
Divorce Calculators
Start Organizing Your Numbers
You cannot negotiate what you have not measured. Use the free calculators to see what your post-divorce housing budget, equity split, and debt division actually look like before anyone asks you to sign.
Home Equity & Buyout Calculator
See what a buyout really requires.
Debt Division Simulator
See how debt assignment moves your borrowing power.
Divorce Housing Snapshot
Organize the house, mortgage, and affordability picture in minutes.
Built Within the Divorce Lending Association
Used by Certified Divorce Lending Professionals Nationwide.
Divorce Housing Strategy is the consumer arm of the Divorce Lending Association, the organization that trains Certified Divorce Lending Professionals nationwide. The same framework the professionals learn is the one working for you here.
Housing decisions in divorce cross legal, financial, and lending lines, and no single professional governs them all. That is why structure gets built in before legal commitments are finalized, so nothing is decided in a room where nobody knows what a lender will actually approve.
The attorney, mediator, or financial neutral on your team can train on this same framework through The Alignment Series™, continuing education (CLE, CME, CE, CJE) from the Divorce Lending Association. Learn more ›
Divorce Lending Association | Certified Divorce Lending Professional (CDLP®) | Mortgage Capacity Mapping™
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the divorce decree take my name off the mortgage?
No. A decree divides property between spouses, but it does not change your contract with the lender. Until the loan is refinanced, assumed, or paid off, both borrowers remain legally responsible.
Can I keep the house after the divorce?
Sometimes, but it depends on whether you can qualify for the mortgage on your own income, how the equity is divided, and how support and debt are structured. That is exactly what a Strategy Review tests before you commit.
Does support income count toward a mortgage?
Only under specific conditions. Lenders generally require a documented history and a defined continuance before spousal or child support counts as qualifying income. How your agreement is written matters.
When should I talk to a CDLP®?
Before the settlement is drafted, ideally as soon as the house becomes part of the conversation. Options narrow quickly once agreements are signed.
What does the Strategy Review cost?
Nothing. It is a free, confidential 20-minute call with a Certified Divorce Lending Professional. No cost, no card, no sales pitch.
Does this replace my attorney?
No. A CDLP® works alongside your attorney, mediator, or financial neutral, adding the lending feasibility layer that legal advice alone cannot provide.
Divorce Housing Insights
Educational guidance, written for homeowners.
Plain-language answers to the housing and mortgage questions that come up in every divorce.
What Happens to the Mortgage in a Divorce?
Why ownership and mortgage responsibility are two different systems, and how the loan actually resolves.
What Makes a CDLP® Different?
They are trained to think about your whole divorce, not just a loan.
Refinancing the Marital Home During Divorce
What lenders actually require, and when the refinance has to happen.
Can I Assume the Mortgage in a Divorce?
When a loan assumption works, when it does not, and what to ask the lender.
Not ready to talk yet? Start with the free checklist.
Download the free Divorce Real Estate and Mortgage Checklist and walk into every conversation, with your attorney, your mediator, or your spouse, knowing which housing and mortgage questions have to be answered.