If you are trying to get a mortgage how much does your spouse's score effect your chances? My income accounts for about 75% of our total income. I have heard that it is the primary borrower's(person who makes the majority of the income) score that matters. Is this true?
When two people are applying for a mortgage, both score count equally, or rather, they base the loan on the person with the worst credit. At least that's the way it was when I was in the mortgage business. If your spouse makes all the money, or can qualify on his or her own, the best thing to do is to get the loan in his or her name and then add you to the title after the loan closes.
I think you are right. They focus mainly on the primary borrower. The second person is mainly to back the first person up. As long as the second person has okay credit I think you should be fine. However, if the credit is really bad (even after attempting to clean it up) then I think you would be better off qualifying for the loan on your own and then later adding him(or her) to the deed if that is what you want...... BTW, you might want to email FLA-TAN and ask his opinion....
Hi das If you make enough to qualify for the loan on your own, then your spouse's income and score will have no bearing. However, if you need both incomes to qualify, then your spouse's scores may have a bearing. Without full and complete info it is impossible to give you an accurate answer. thanks for the kind words cf fla-tan
Your statement leaves way too much open and, if read one way, is completely untrue. If you are attempting to obtain funds from a lender for a mortgage and you submit a JOINT application (both spouses), there is no such thing as "his score means more because he makes more money". With a joint application, the potential lender will take the LOWER of the middle scores as the lending point. If spouse #1's middle score is a 780 and spouse #2's middle score is a 550, you're getting the loan processed on the 550. In this case, I would certainly tell spouse #1 to apply on his/her own, NOT jointly -- IF his/her income can support the loan approval on it's own. Again, there's no such horse as 'one spouses score means more/counts more than the other' if it, in fact, a joint mortgage application. That's the way it works here in Michigan, that is.
John You are correct, in so far as you go. If both incomes are required to qualify for a mortgage, then YES both would have to qualify jointly and the lower score would have great bearing. What I was referring to was if the higher income spouse could qualify for a mortgage based on his/her income ONLY then a joint application would not be required and then the lower income/scoring spouse would have NO BEARING on qualifying. I probably should have spelled it out more explicitly. fla-tan
