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Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores

I'm new to all of this. We're finally ready to buy a house.  How do FICO scores work for the married couple?  Do they simply take an average when getting approved for the mortgage?


Message Edited by 78Mommy on 07-20-2007 11:13 PM
Message 1 of 5
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CreditBob
Established Contributor

Re: Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores

Here is one of two things thta can happen. The mortgage company will take your three scores and then divide by 3 to get the average. Then they will do the same thing with your spouse. Then take the two averages and divide by 2. or they will take your middle score and your spouses middle score and divide it by 2. Or the worst case scenerio is that they would use the lower of the two. WHY DON'T YOU & YOUR SPOUSE BOTH PULL ALL THREE CREDIT REPROTS AND SCORES TO SEE WER YOU STAND. DO YOU KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY LATE PAYMENTS, PUBLIC RECORDS, ETC. THAT IS BEING REPORTED BY CHANCE? IF YOU ALREADY HAVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE ARE THERE ANY BLANCES OVER 9% USEAGE OF THE LINE OF CREDIT ON CREDIT CARDS. FOR EXAMPLE IF YOU HAVE A $ 1,000.00 LINE OF CREDIT ON A VISA CREDIT CARD, HAVE YOUR BALANCES BETWEEN $ 5.00 (FIVE DOLLARS) AND NO MORE THAN $ 20.00   DO THIS FOR ONLY AND ALL REVOLVING ACCOUNTS. ON INSTALLMENT LOANS, IF YOU HAVE ONE, GET THE BLANCE DOWN TO 30 %. IF YOU HAVE AN AUTO LOAN TRY TO GET IT BELOW 50% BUT PREFERRED AT 30% OR LOWER.  YOU WANT TO LOWER YOUR DEBT TO RATIO. THE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY IS NOT ONLY REQUIRING A MINIMUM OF 5% down but they look at what bills that you have and they do not want you to get into a situation of foreclosure.
 
husband score  800     wife's score 700      700+800=1500 divided by 2=750 average
 
I'm new to all of this. We're finally ready to buy a house.  How do FICO scores work for the married couple?  Do they simply take an average when getting approved for the mortgage?
Message 2 of 5
Tuscani
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores

Message 3 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores

Sorry about the double post...
 
Back to the example:
            Husband has the following scores ==> 723     698     731     Score used is 723
            Wife has the following ==>                    802     805     798     Score used is 802
 
Most A paper lenders will then take the lower of the 2 middle scores... in this case 723.
 
There are, however, programs (usually subprime) that will use the score of the Primary Borrower (Earns over 50% of the income) and some that use the higher of the 2 scores regardless of income.
Message 4 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Shared Mortgage and FICO Scores



78Mommy wrote:
I'm new to all of this. We're finally ready to buy a house.  How do FICO scores work for the married couple?  Do they simply take an average when getting approved for the mortgage?

There are mortgage products that consider all 6 FICOs--even if only one spouse is working. Not sure if they are using a median or a mean, and there might be products which use either.
 
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