Weddingbee boards

This won't sound very romantic, but I learned from a failed marriage. I owned my own home and he did not. I never put him on the deed ( was listed "my name, a single woman" when I bought it).  During the divorce, it turned out that he was entitled to half regardless of deed, and regardless of the fact that he did not contribute to mortgage payments because I never changed it to "my name, a married woman." I guess by default, the marriage entitled him to half unless I specifically changed the title to exclude him (This is a California thing). Even though he never paid for the mortgage, MY INCOME was considered "joint income" so technically, in the eyes of Ca law, he paid in the form of joint income. 

I was told over and over to get a prenup, but blew it off, thinking prenups were only for the wealthy. Now I tell people until I'm blue in the face that a prenup is a MUST if you have ANY assets you want to protect. There are a TON of different ways to split property/real estate profit, so the two of you should sit down and talk to an attorney--he/she would know best how to make sure everyone's protected.

Even if you decide to keep the deeds exactly as they are, there could be a state-specific law that affects who owns/profits anyway.