National Family Mortgage ® Intra-family Mortgage Loan Standards

Last Revised on February 10, 2026

National Family Mortgage ® is a specialized, scalable service. We operate within a narrow vertical to ensure every loan is enforceable, tax-compliant, and successful.

Please review our Standards below to help determine if your transaction falls within our service model.

If we’re the right fit, we look forward to helping you!

Location Matters

For Purchase Loans and Seller Finance transactions, the Borrower’s home must be in one of our supported U.S. states: AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WI

For Refinance Loans and Home Equity Loan transactions, the Borrower’s home must be in one of our supported U.S. states: AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, WA, WI

All Lender(s) and Borrower(s) must have:

  • A U.S. mailing address
  • A U.S. Social Security Number or Tax ID Number

X – We cannot support transactions anywhere else or any other way.

Family Relationship Requirement

For Purchase Loans, Refinance Loans, and Home Equity Loan transactions, at least one Lender and one Borrower must be immediate family members (parents, grandparents, children, or siblings — including adoptive / step).

For Seller Finance transactions, at least one Lender and one Borrower must be family members (parents, grandparents, children, or siblings, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews — including adoptive / step).

In all cases, a significant other, fiancé, or spouse may be included on the loan as a Co-Borrower if the Lender and primary Borrower share a transaction-specific qualifying relationship above.

In all cases, loans may also be to/from Grantor(s) or Trustee(s) of a Trust (Family, Living, Revocable / Irrevocable, Land, Realty, Special Needs), provided the Trustee and counterparty share a transaction-specific qualifying relationship above.

If the Lenders intend to lend from two separate Trusts (e.g., Mom has a Trust and Dad has a separate Trust), then the Lenders will need to structure two separate Family Mortgages as 1st and 2nd position liens.

X – Loans between friends, cousins, colleagues, ex-spouses, or ex-in-laws do not qualify.

X – Loans through a business or retirement account do not qualify.

X – Loans through family-controlled FPs, FLPs, GPs, LLCs, LPs, LLPs, LPAs, PLLCs, S-Corps, Life Estates, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, or Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts do not qualify.

X – Loans involving a deed transfer or buy-out / refi due to a divorce or breakup do not qualify.

X – Loans involving sibling Co-Borrowers who are not borrowing through a qualifying Trust do not qualify.

Don’t Bet the Farm

Loans must be secured by a 1-2 family residence, condominium, townhouse, or rowhouse.

Manufactured or modular homes are permitted only if permanently affixed to land under one tax ID number.

X – We do not support construction loans or loans secured by vacant land, co-ops, mobile homes, tiny homes, tenant-in-common properties, or property zoned agricultural, commercial, forest, mountain, or rural.

Timing Is Everything

The family mortgage must be executed and recorded at the Borrower’s real estate closing — not afterward and not “on the sidelines.”

The real estate closing must be scheduled between the 4th and 25th of the month.

You must submit your loan build and complete our online checkout a minimum of two weeks before and a maximum of three weeks before the Borrower’s scheduled closing date.

Loan documents cannot be formatted to accommodate Borrower execution via Power of Attorney. However, your settlement agent may be able to modify the documents locally to accommodate execution via POA, remote, or digital notarization.

X – If you’ve already closed or are closing too soon, we cannot assist.

X – We do not support “after-the-fact” loans.

Marriage Matters

When not lending through a Trust, married Lenders must include their spouse on the loan. “A married couple, as joint lenders” is our standard vesting designation for two spouses acting together as Co-Lenders. This language is universally accepted for loan documentation and allows us to treat both spouses as joint parties to the transaction.

If your family attorney or settlement agent requires different vesting language for married Lenders, please contact your National Family Mortgage® team member. We can make arrangements within your account to allow you to enter the requested language directly. Please note, we do not support Lenders who wish to hold their loan as Tenants in Common.

Likewise, unless borrowing through a Trust, married Borrowers must include their spouse on both the property deed/title and the loan. If a Borrower has a spouse or unmarried partner who will appear on the property deed/title, that person must also be on the loan.

X – National Family Mortgage ® does not review prenuptial agreements or support holding assets as “sole and separate estates.”

X – Individual Borrowers or Lenders who wish to exclude their spouse or partner from loan documents or title do not qualify.

No Shared Ownership Between Lender and Borrower

The Lender is simply playing the role of the bank and cannot co-own the home being purchased.

X – If the Lender will also appear on the property deed/title, the transaction does not qualify.

Keep It Simple: Two Lenders, Two Borrowers, Maximum

National Family Mortgage ® supports up to two Lenders (typically a married couple living at the same address) and up to two Borrowers.

Families wishing to combine funds from multiple households (e.g., parents and siblings, or both sides of a family) must structure two separate Family Mortgages as 1st and 2nd position liens.

X – Loans with more than two Lenders or Borrowers do not qualify.

X – Crowdfunded or pooled family loans do not qualify.

The Price Must Be Right

For Purchase Loans and Seller Finance transactions:

  • For primary intrafamily mortgage loans, the Borrower’s total mortgage indebtedness may not exceed the home’s purchase price.
  • For secondary intrafamily mortgage loans, the Borrower’s family mortgage indebtedness may not exceed the Borrower’s available equity position, defined as the difference between the home’s purchase price and the amount of any simultaneous primary (first-position) mortgage.

For Refinance Loans and Home Equity Loan transactions:

  • For primary intrafamily mortgage loans, the Borrower’s total mortgage indebtedness, including the family mortgage, may not exceed the home’s current market value.
  • For secondary (home equity) intrafamily mortgage loans, the Borrower’s family mortgage indebtedness may not exceed the Borrower’s available equity position, defined as the difference between the home’s current market value and the outstanding balance of any existing primary (first-position) mortgage.
  • In Texas, if the loan includes any home-equity component (“cash-back refinance”), state law limits the total of all mortgage debt to 80% of the home’s current market value. You can only have one home equity loan.

The Rate Must Be Right

The loan’s interest rate must meet or exceed the term-appropriate annual IRS Applicable Federal Rate (AFR) in effect at the time of the Borrower’s real estate closing when the loan is made, and may not exceed 8.00% (6.00% in PA or TN).

X – Loans structured below the required AFR or above the stated maximums will not qualify.

These rules apply regardless of whether your family intends to file a gift tax return or report imputed interest income differently.

Lending Is a Privilege, Not a Practice

The family Lender must not have made three or more mortgage loans within the past 12 months.

X – Families engaged in frequent or ongoing private lending activity may be subject to additional federal and state licensing requirements.

X – National Family Mortgage ® cannot support any loan that may be deemed a commercial or habitual lending practice.

The Loan Closing

All family mortgage transactions are considered private financing and must be executed at the Borrower’s loan closing with their local settlement agent. This ensures the loan is properly reflected on the settlement statement and recorded with the local authority.

The type of settlement agent varies by state (attorney, title company, or escrow agent).

The following states typically require closing attorneys:
AL, CT, DC, FL, GA, MA, NH, NJ, NC, PA, SC, VT

The settlement agent is responsible for:

  • Overseeing the execution of the loan documents
  • Attaching the Exhibit “A” legal description to the Mortgage
  • All customary title work and issuing title insurance
  • Recording the lien with the local government authority
  • Reflecting the loan on the Borrower’s settlement disclosure (HUD-1 or ALTA)

The following states require various Deed of Trust, Mortgage, or Security Deed taxes to be paid at the time of document recording with the proper government authority. The Borrower’s closing attorney, title company, or escrow company will collect the required taxes from the Borrower as a real estate closing cost. It is the client’s responsibility to pay all required local government document recording taxes.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee, Virginia

THESE STANDARDS ARE NOT ALL INCLUSIVE AND YOUR UNIQUE OR UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCE MAY NOT BE SUPPORTED BY OUR PLATFORM. WE DO NOT MAKE ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THESE STANDARDS. IF YOUR SPECIFIC, UNIQUE TRANSACTION IS NOT SUPPORTED BY OUR PLATFORM, PLEASE CONSULT A LOCAL ATTORNEY OR OTHER APPLICABLE SERVICE PROVIDER FOR HELP.