Mortgage options when one spouse has a good credit score and the other does not
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Anonymous
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My husband and I are looking to buy a house. I have been a home-owner before, previous to meeting him over a decade ago. This would be the first time he buys. The problem is, his credit rating isn’t very good – 656. My credit score is rated “excellent.”
The mortgage brokers I have spoken with have recommended that we take the mortgage out in just my name in order to get good interest rates. I am a bit hesitant to do this, but I think it might be the rational, reasonable approach. Thoughts? Ideas? |
Anonymous
| My husband and I did exactly this. I'm the only name on the mortgage because of his less-than-stellar credit issues. Both our names our on the deed. It's been almost 10 years this way; has not been a problem. |
Anonymous
We did this for our refinance, where the loan is in one person's name but the deed is in both. It wasn't because of credit issues but purely because it was less paperwork. I don't know what divorce laws are like, but I wonder if a couple does this and gets divorce, what would be the repurcussion? So unless you completely trust your spouse, I would consult a lawyer. |
Anonymous
| I think if you just have the loan in your name then you have to qualify on your income alone. |
Anonymous
| 13:59 is correct. |
Anonymous
| OP here - Thanks everyone. I am able to qualify on my income alone. I am glad to hear that others have done it. I was uneasy, but it seems to make sense from the financial point-of-view. |
Anonymous
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We did the same. Plus my wife had identity theft just recently before we sought mortgage, so it was even lower.
Mortgage is on my name, she's on the title with me. It meant we got a smaller house than we'd wanted, but we sleep better at night that we can live on one income if we wanted to. |
Anonymous
| Share the title, not the mortgage? you essentially gave away half the house and get nothing in return |
Anonymous
We did this, but considering we're married, we're pretty damn entangled already. |
Anonymous
| We did this and I know 2 other couples who have as well. Interestingly, it is the DHs who all have the bad credit score. |
Anonymous
| We did this too, because DH had a lower credit score. The mortgage is in my name and the car loan is in his name. Very interesting about the DHs having lower credit scores. Would make for an interesting study. |
Anonymous
+1. The pp is an idiot. |
Anonymous
Why? You base this on two examples? I think overall women have worse credit then men. They tend to not manage money as well. http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/jim-gallagher/study-women-handle-credit-cards-worse-than-men/article_9e1c59e2-8fb4-11e1-a29e-001a4bcf6878.html |
Anonymous
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We'd never be able to buy anything more than a tiny TH or condo without both our incomes at this point.
We did have to refinance our previous property under just my husband's name when my credit score dropped just below 700 due to identity theft (so, no fault of mine). It was RIGHT after the market imploded and credit was only available to the absolute BEST of the best. Thank goodness we could qualify on just his income at the time. Although, in retrospect, had we gone on with the ARM and our rates had readjusted, they would have been downward. We just had no way of knowing that at the time, so we went forward with the refinance to lock in a reasonable payment just in case. They refinanced in his name, but both both our names were on the title. It did make a couple phone calls difficult when we went to sell, because the bank would ONLY talk to him about account details. |
Anonymous
Interesting. I have my wife on the title because if I should die, I want my wife to get the house.
We share ownership of our home and raise our family and nurture our marriage within it. That "nothing" is worth it to me. |