Buying house from my wife?

[Anonymous]

Here is my story.  My wife and I bought our house 3 years ago and at the time her scores were higher than mine and we each had more than enough income by ourselves with essentially zero debt.  So we just put the mortgage in her name because she qualified for a better rate.  We only put 5% down though and got a loan for 4.625% APR and are obviously paying PMI.  Here are our stats

House appraisal value- $182,500

Loan- 172,500 @ 4.625 for 30 years = $890/month

PMI- $129/month

Current Balance- $168,018

I think it would be best to refinance but am looking for some feedback.  My FICO 8 scores are all 780-810 and I have $0 in debt and $120k income, my wife has FICO 8 scores all around 760 with a car loan of $33,000 and no other debt and income of $110k. 

I feel like the house will appraise higher than the $182k but lets assume it doesn't.  Also lets just say I have $25k available to give as an addtional down payment if necessary (would like to keep this as minimal as possible).  Main priority is to get rid of PMI but also want the lowest rate possible. 

Can I and should I just buy the house from my wife or should we just refinance.  Also what would it take to get rid of PMI?

Ideally I would buy the house from my wife, put an additional ~15k down, finance for 15 years and be paying only maybe $100 more than i currently am.

Thanks

[ezdriver]

Buy it if you want your name on the mortgage and refinance it if not.

[Anonymous]

I assume you are both on the deed of the home so you could just do it as a refinance into your name.  Then if the appraisal doesn't come back high enough to knock off the PMI then you could just bring the money to pay down the mortgage to closing to get you at the 80% mark.  Should be a pretty easy refinance.

[Anonymous]

I was unaware that you could still consider it a refinance just as long as my name is on the deed (it is). 

[StartingOver10]

Check your mortgage scores before you do anything. FICO 8 scores aren't used for mortgages. Your FICO mortgage scores can be obtained here in the 3B report. 

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

If you werent on the deed you could be addd and a refi done in both names - but since it is on there you are fine

The only enitity that would care is the current lender  but they are going to be paid off by the funds of the new loan 

were you added on at the time of the purchase or afterwards?

Good Luck -