Help with strategy

[Anonymous]

I have the clean credit, but lower income- not enough to qualify for what we want on my own; he has the lower credit, but higher income- enough to qualify on his own.  Strategy wise, I know his credit will be the one we have to go with, but would there be any benefit to me being the primary borrower for scrutiny purposes or should we go with him as primary since "cash talks".  Is there really any difference either way?  Any benefit to both of us being on the loan or since he'd qualify financially solo just do the loan in his name and then both being on the deed?  Any benefit to just him being on the loan over both of us?

[Anne1208]

I am in your boat - husband has much higher income but way worse credit.

In the end, we decided to be patient - took a good hard look at my husband's credit situation, and took steps to clean it up and put him on the right track, and then we are waiting 12 months or so. 

Two years would really get him up near me (mid 700s for mortgage score), one year at least gets him hopefully from mid 600s mortgage score to around 700. 

Consider waiting and just trying to get his credit score up - it will probably make things less stressful int he long run. If youre both on the mortgage they take the lowest score no matter what (there is no "primary"). so unless you want to totally qualify on your own, waiting may be the best or only option!

[Anonymous]

He doesn't have crappy credit per se, just not as good as mine.  I'm at or above 800 on all 3 and he's 650-750 depending on the report- he has some stuff due to fall off, and I'm trying to get those moving along, just playing the waiting game with all of the 30-90 days for information to update nonsense (we all know it only takes a phone call).  We're just worried we'll miss out on a great house if we don't try to get preapproved now, but at the same time rates will be better.  I know we can rescore if/when those things fall off (if they fall off in time) and before we lock, just wasn't sure if there was any benefit going one way over another.

[Revelate]

The concept of primary borrower doesn't really apply to the mortgage space unlike auto lending cosigning and some other loan products.

There's zero benefit to his applying singly in this case, and you don't have the income to support what you want to buy, so work on cleaning up what you can on his profile since your scores don't need any help, and apply together.

Do you have his explicit mortgage scores?  And if so what's the current mid score?  That's really the benchmark for determining whether to go now or wait, as there are tradeoffs.  I will say there's always another great house on the market in time, and rates aren't going to go up that quickly (it'd tank the economy, they can't do that) and as such you can likely afford to wait for a bit.

[Anne1208]

I understand the anxiety about worrying that you will miss out on things - some of the new construction pricing where we want to buy has gone up in the past a little more than i think is justified, plus the area in which we REALLY want to be is the one with the shortest # of remaining lots, so yes, it is always easy to feel anxiety and a sense of urgency, like you will "miss out."  Also, homebuilder agents and realtors seem to do a good job of trying to instill a sense of urgency in people, too.  I can't tell you how many times we've heard from the diff homebuilders about how interest rates might go up...we heard it every week this past month and for at least three weeks in succession the interest rate avg. dipped. 

In other words, operate on the facts you KNOW.  You know that you need his salary, and you know that he may need a higher score to help you qualify/get a good interest rate. You can only guess on whether you will miss all good opportunities by waiting more, or whether prices and interest rates will rise. Odds are, the interest rates wont go up much, if at all, prices wont go up much, if at all, and even if there are opportunities you miss, new ones are popping up all the time.  Honestly ive been watching the MLS almost daily for five years (obsessive I know) and I cant tell you how many "perfect" opportunities came up, then were sold, and a new perfect one came up later - it used to make me feel antsy but now i know that whether its a new or already built home, i WILL buy a house eventually that my husband and i think its great.  You will too!! in the mean time, dont try to stress yourself out trying to force things. It should be as non-emotional of a decision making process as you can make it