I am buying a condo for my sister because she is basically homeless. The condo requires that you be 55+, you can't rent it, and whoever lives in the condo, their name must be on the deed. So in addition to my husband and I, her name has to be on the deed only because she will be living there. We are paying cash for the condo ($18,000) but hate that her name has to be on the deed when she hasn't paid us anything. If she pays us we will gladly sign a quit claim deed signing it over to her but in the mean time.. . Is holding a mortgage a good option for us?

A much better option is not buying this one and finding one where you can buy it in your name and rent it to her. This , in my opinion is just a legal problem waiting to happen.

I agree with Fr_Chuck. If you write up a contract with her and she fails to pay your only recourse will be a lawsuit against her - you will not be able to evict her from the condo because she is an owner. If she's currently "basically homeless" I assume she has few assets that could be used as collateral for the personal loan, so a lawsuit is probably not going to help you.

I'm curious - is the purchase price of the condo really just $18K? Or is that the down payment, and you will be taking out a mortgage? If there's a mortgage involved, who's expected to pay it? Also - who's expected to pay the condo association fees?