My mother gifted me the downpayment to purchase real property during
my marriage.  My mother also has paid all the principal, interest,
taxes, insurance, and maintenance on this investment property. 
Absolutely no community funds were contributed to the property. Wife
also  signed an interspousal quitclaim deed at the close of escrow. So
far, it seems straight-forward separate property.

However, the loan used to acquire the piece of real estate relied on
community credit, since I was not employed at the time.  Furthermore,
title was taken as "husband and wife as joint tenants".  I understand
that these two facts creates a presumption of community property.

My question is whether the use of community credit & the manner in
which title was taken transmuted the real estate from separate
property to community property.  If so, can Wife force the sale of
these properties and claim a community interest in the proceeds?  If
the real estate remained separate property, does Wife have some sort
of a proportional interest in the real estate because of the use of
community credit?  If so, how would that be calculated? Finally, what
is my strongest argument for maintaing the real estate as separate
property?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Request for Question Clarification by hagan-ga on 15 May 2006 05:31 PDT

Helpme2 -- 
Take a look at this answer I provided a few months ago, about a similar question:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=610347
Does that help?  If so, it's yours, on the house.

Just a couple of questions.  Your clarification may help a Researcher.

In which state is the property?

Did I understand correctly that after the property was purchased with
a title saying "husband and wife as joint tenants", subsequently your
wife quitclaim deeded her interest to you?  Has the quitclaim deed be
registered?

The property is located in Ca.  At the close of escrow title was taken
as Husband and Wife as joint tenants.  Shortly thereafter, approx 3-4
months, Wife signed an interspousal grant deed to Husband granting him
the property as his sole and separate property. This interspousal
grant deed was recorded. The only reason Wife was on the initial loan
was for loan qualification purposes.  The lender was not aware that
Mother, not Husband & Wife, was to be solely responsible for the
mortgage.  Also, Husband & Wife knew that Mother was to make all
mortgage payments, including any maintenance, improvements, and HOA
dues.  Wife was aware of Mother's intent of giving a gift solely to
Husband, and not to the community.

Another important fact I forgot to mention is that initially, the
mortgage payments were made directly to the lender by Mother. 
However, after 2 months, a direct auto transfer was set up from
Mother's account to Husband & Wife's joint account in the amount of
the mortgage.  Then, a monthly autopay of the mortgage was set up with
the Lender from Husband & Wife's joint account.  Thus, it seemed to
the lender as though the mortgage payments were being made by Husband
& Wife.  This was done solely because we wanted to make sure that the
mortgage payments were timely made so as not to affect our credit.  My
question regarding this scenario is whether Wife has an argument that
since the mortgage payment was made from their joint account, it was
made with co-mingled funds (community funds), which transmuted the
separate property into community property.