Do I want a co-borrower?

[MostlyCloudy]

Ok so my long term girlfriend and I are going to get married, some day. Thing is, I want a house, now. What are the implications of us being married before applying for a mortgage, and whether or not she is part of the process?

My g/f is still in school, she has relatively little income, and her credit score is probably not all that great considering she has 30k in student loans and about 70% credit card utilization (no collections of delinquencies however). There is nothing about her potential fico score or income that will help us get a loan. And in fact, as I have read, I believe this may hurt our chances rather than if I take out a loan all myself. 

1) If we are married, do we have to file this loan together or anything? Or am I free to take out mortgages without her as I see fit?

 2) Can I add her to the title/mortgage at a later date to give her peace of mind?

3) Should I get my mortgage before we wed for any particular reason?

Message Edited by MostlyCloudy on 04-29-2009 04:41 PM

[Anonymous]

Get the loan on your own....

You can refi later into both of your names after you get married.

It is a bad idea (particualrly in this economy.market where selling a house if necessary is pretty hard) to go in joint prior to marriage.  You can always add her later and there is no upside in doing so now. 

[Anonymous]

What state do you live in? Community property states essentially "force" you to apply together once married. If that's the case, you'd want to buy before getting married if her file would weaken yours.

[Anonymous]

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@MostlyCloudy wrote:

Ok so my long term girlfriend and I are going to get married, some day. Thing is, I want a house, now. What are the implications of us being married before applying for a mortgage, and whether or not she is part of the process?

My g/f is still in school, she has relatively little income, and her credit score is probably not all that great considering she has 30k in student loans and about 70% credit card utilization (no collections of delinquencies however). There is nothing about her potential fico score or income that will help us get a loan. And in fact, as I have read, I believe this may hurt our chances rather than if I take out a loan all myself. 

1) If we are married, do we have to file this loan together or anything? Or am I free to take out mortgages without her as I see fit?

 2) Can I add her to the title/mortgage at a later date to give her peace of mind?

3) Should I get my mortgage before we wed for any particular reason?

Message Edited by MostlyCloudy on 04-29-2009 04:41 PM

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I too would reccomend getting the mortgage by yourself, but make sure that you can make the payments on your own, without relying on her income.  While we all wish for the best, we need to prepare for the worst.  Because she will have no legal responsibility to the mortgage there is nothing that will require her to contribute to the payments, so if you are unable to make the payment without her and she chooses not to contribute to the payments you don't want to get yourself into a situation where you can't make the payments without her.  

After you marry, you can do a quick (quit) claim deed, I'm not sure how that's spelled, which will add her to the title.  I'm not sure if you will be required to refinance at this point after the quick claim deed or not, but guessing I would say you would need to.  

Additionally, if you live in a community property state, once you marry she will have equal rights to the home, though no legal responsibility to the mortgage, and it won't report to your CR's.  

Once you marry, you can take out mortgages without her, but again, if you live in a community property state, her debts will be considered as yours, her credit will be pulled, but her income will not be counted.

[Anonymous]

Community property states don't force you to apply together, but for FHA they will make you count both persons debts.  Although a slight difference, there is a difference.  Say one partner has a 500 FICO, it does not prevent the couple from buying, assuming that the partner can get approval based on both persons debts but only their income.

[MostlyCloudy]

The kicker to all of this is we were considering getting a marriage license so that she could be added to my company's group health insurance policy, as she is now totally uninsured, and our policy is 100% covered. I live in SC so I will research the community property laws, but it sounds like if we go ahead and "get married" for insurance purposes, that our CR's will be pooled together when I apply for a mortgage, which would be bad. So we should really hold off on the insurance until I secure a loan in my name, THEN we can get a marriage license, and at some point in the future we will work her into the mortgage on the home. But for now, it seems as though the house really needs to be exclusively in my name for our best chances at securing a good mortgage. (I have relatively little debt and ~700 fico, soon to go up once my last credit card is payed off).

[WannaHouse]

South Carolina is not a community property state.

[Anonymous]

You're not in a community property state so it won't matter if you get married. It will be your choice as to whether you apply together or not

[MostlyCloudy]

what about how the LO examines our credit profiles and thinks "well shes in so much debt you guys cant pay off a house together"???

BTW I just signed her up for scorewatch and she has a 682 FICO. 

[Anonymous]

The LO will not ask about her credit profile or debt unless she is on the loan period.  They can't.   they can only go by the person/people who are on the loan.