So ultimately the question is how can we get the mortgage in my mom's name and what's that process? Will she have to reapply as if she's a new borrower? Will they take the history of payments (and the circumstances generally) into consideration? Is there a possibility she could get denied? I myself manage some of my mom's other financial affairs, but have never owned a home so this is out of my realm of experience.
TLDR: Mom's name is on deed but not mortgage. Can't access mortgage details. How can we get the mortgage in her name?
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
The process would be that she will have to reapply for a mortgage as though she is a new borrower. As another poster said, there generally are not assumable / transferable loans these days.
It's essentially a refinance, and she should inform the new mortgage company of the existing mortgage and if she's approved between the new mortgage and the title company they'll make sure that the existing mortgage gets paid off and the lien removed so that the new mortgage can be in first position.
They will look at her credit history, assets, liabilities, income, and job history. As someone said, since she is not liable for the existing mortgage, those payments won't count towards her credit history.
It is possible that she could get denied for a mortgage if her income is too low or her job history is too spotty or if she owes a lot to others (like credit cards or car loans or whatever). If that happens, then it may be the case that she can't afford to stay in the house and really should consider moving to more affordable accommodations. If she does downsize, then she could sell the house and use the proceeds to pay off the existing mortgage - she'd have to anyway in order to sell it because the new owners wouldn't want that existing mortgage in place, even though her name isn't on the mortgage.
...
She probably should come clean and notify the bank that holds the existing mortgage that he is deceased. They probably won't foreclose on her as long as the payments are made, but they probably can force a refinance or accelerated payoff due to his death, so if she can't pay it off or get it refinanced they probably could foreclose eventually. I don't know the timing but I would guess they would probably give her on the order of several months to half a year to get things straightened out.
The good news is that mortgage rates now are really very low by historical standards, so since she's just refinancing and already owns the home, it should be as affordable as it's going to get.