A realtor on TikTok sparked a debate on one of the most recent videos she posted, and now people are telling her to break up with her boyfriend.
In the video, the creator recorded herself with text over her head that said, “My boyfriend just moved in with me, I bought this home a year ago by myself. He wants me to add him to the title since he will be paying for stuff around the house.” The audio that plays in the background is a snippet of a song by BoyWithUke, in which the singer says, “Yeah, fuck no.”
Erika Strong Rodri’s (@ErikaStrongRodri) video has been viewed over 700,000 times and over 100,000 people have liked it. It’s unclear whether the creator is talking about her own alleged personal experience or relaying one of her client’s or commenter’s experiences, but it split her viewers nonetheless.
“Ask him to refinance half the current market value in his name and that cash come to you,” one person wrote in the comments section, which the creator agreed with. Another person joked, “Tell him he’s making husband requests on a boyfriend’s salary.” Someone else said, “Even if you get married, don’t add him.”
Some of the commenters suggested that the conversation could maybe take place again after they’re married but the overall consensus is that it would be a bad idea to add a boyfriend to the title of the house. As a Lawyers.com attorney notes: “This is a fairly common problem. Either way, you are potentially setting yourself up for litigation, if there is a problem. Even if she is not on the title, if she is contributing money to the house, then she arguably has an equitable interest. I guess the answer depends in part on your future plans.”
Another attorney puts it more bluntly on the same post: “You should NOT put your girlfriend’s name on the house. You can change this AFTER you are married, IF you get married. You can have a separate agreement with your girlfriend that you will put her name on the house if you should get married, but DO NOT put her name on the deed now.”
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator for comment via Instagram DM but did not immediately hear back.
Update 3:44 PM CT, Feb. 13: In a statement to the Daily Dot, the TikToker said she made the video to give “hard working women a piece of advice.” She was inspired after one of her client’s asked her if she should add her boyfriend to her home title.
“I worked with her last year on the purchase of her home so I know How hard she worked to get her first home so of course I told her absolutely NOT!” Rodri said.
She said she was excited by the positive response and celebrated single female homeownership.
“I was very happy to see the number of financially smart women in the comments,” she said. “As well as, so many men supporting women. There was too many comments to keep up with, but I saw a few discussions sparking between men and women regarding this topic and other similar ones- I was excited to see the support from one another. I was also nice to see differences of opinions being heard and respected!”
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