I know of someone who "bought" a house but she is married, does not work, she had her husband sign a doc. saying he has nothing to do with the house, and her mother gave her 1k to use as a down payment. The house is a shack and she paid $230k for it. How in the world can someone buy a house like this? If it were you or I, this would be a no-brainer. The mother and the husband are not listed anywhere on the docs.
Go figure. I say this was a corrupt deal.
It depends what state they are in. In many states, if your spouse buys a home, even if you're off the deed and sign off on the mortgage you are STILL considered owner of the home according to state law, and therefore responsible for it in an indirect way.
Assuming her husband is living there, it's probably a legitimate deal. He makes the money, has bad credit, she makes no money and has good credit.