EST. 2011From the Divorce Lending Association, creator of the CDLP® designation
Your house. Your plan.
One that still works after the divorce is over.
Whether you stay, sell or start over somewhere new, the plan for the house decides where your children sleep, what you can afford once support ends, and whether you can ever buy again.
Most settlements decide the house first and hope the rest works out. We start with the questions your life actually depends on:
- 1Can I stay in the home, and still afford it in five years?
- 2If I leave, where can I live, and when can I buy again?
- 3Will my name really come off the old mortgage?
- 4What should my settlement say so the plan holds?
20 minutes. Confidential. No cost, no card, no sales pitch. With a Certified Divorce Lending Professional whose standing you can check first.
Divorce Housing Strategy is the consumer arm of the Divorce Lending Association, the standards body behind the CDLP® designation.
- Established 2011
- Creator of the CDLP® designation
- 1,000+ certified professionals
- All 50 states
- State-approved CLE provider
Every claim above links to the page that proves it.
As Featured on Divorce Dialogues · Miller Law Group
The mortgage mistake that traps divorcing spouses
Divorce attorney and mediator Katherine Eisold Miller, founder of Miller Law Group in New York, sat down with Jody Bruns to talk about why “How do I keep the house?” is often the wrong question to start with.
- Why qualifying for the mortgage is not the same as affording your life
- The hidden costs people miss, from insurance to title risk
- The real trade-offs of holding on to a low interest rate
20 minutes. Confidential. No cost, no card, no sales pitch.
Originally published by Miller Law Group. Watch on YouTube
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. Thirty-eight 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 strategy review 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.
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.
The Framework Your Professionals Are Trained On
Used by Certified Divorce Lending Professionals Nationwide.
The same framework a Certified Divorce Lending Professional is trained on 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™
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.
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.
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.