So my wife and I are looking to purchase a house this summer. I was speaking with a mortgage agent today who said that we should get the NC conventional 97% which recently became available. However she said that as our current household income is over the amount required we could just put the mortgage under my name, then the deed under my wife and I. This seems sketchy. Anyone have any experience with this?

3/24/2014 9:47:11 PM

Its totally legit. She is an owner with the same rights as you, but you are the only one obligated to repay the lender. The payment history will reflect on your credit only, but she will still have to pledge her half as collateral.

Usually when people do this its because one spouse has problematic credit or their income is hard to document, but if it helps you qualify for a better loan go for it.

3/24/2014 9:55:07 PM

yeah nothing sketchy about it. Go for it

3/24/2014 10:00:57 PM

I am doing this now. Closing on Thursday. This is a brand new loan type this year in NC.

The traditional 30 yr fixed was an auto 8% down with me and her on it. We just couldn't swing that down payment. We definitely didn't want the first time home buyers mortgage so we talked about just having my name on the loan. If we did that then it was only 3.5% down and we would still qualify for the house.

PM me if you want to get into the financials. The whole underwriting process is so much easier with just me on it - not having to send the same thing for two people.



[Edited on March 25, 2014 at 6:35 AM. Reason : ss]

3/25/2014 6:32:40 AM

we did that for our house last year, no issues

3/25/2014 6:44:26 AM

The mortgage is in my wife's name, and both of us are on our deed. This was 4 years ago, and no problems.

3/25/2014 9:02:07 AM

yeah we did the same thing when my wife and i bought our first house together. she had a less than stellar credit rating, and mine was spotless, so we had the mortgage in my name to get a better rate, but the deed was in both our names.

3/25/2014 9:10:07 AM

How do you avoid the mortgage insurance? I thought if you had less than 20% down, you'll have it on the LIFE of the loan.

With that said, why are you buying a house if you can't even afford the 8% down? Seems like you may be over-leveraging.

3/25/2014 10:11:01 AM

I just bought a house in Cary this past May. Sadly, 20% was $120K I wrote the check and now live in a nice little castle near the Bass Pro Shops off Weston & Harrison.

3/25/2014 10:12:02 AM

#humblebrag

3/25/2014 10:27:15 AM

Quote :

"the Bass Pro Shops off Weston & Harrison."

#winning

3/25/2014 10:29:55 AM

Quote :

"How do you avoid the mortgage insurance? I thought if you had less than 20% down, you'll have it on the LIFE of the loan."

Pmi will go away once you hit the 20% mark on a traditional 30yr fixed. Pmi is perm on a first time home buyers loan and will never go away.

Quote :

"With that said, why are you buying a house if you can't even afford the 8% down? Seems like you may be over-leveraging."

8% for us would have been about 11k down. We have that but would wipe us both out. Not worth it. You have other expenses after buying - most new cons dont come with gutters, landscaping, screens, blinds, etc. trust me you rather have some on hand cash after closing.

3/25/2014 10:35:35 AM

I heard if you use My Dog Tess realty for your agent you get a credit at closing of 1% of your purchase amount.

3/25/2014 10:41:13 AM

I'd double check that PMI will go away once you hit 20% with a traditional mortgage. I believe that is how it used to work, but the rules may have changed that in the last 6 months.

I totally agree that you need cash to further improve a house. I renovated my house after I bought it, but that was all cosmetic and voluntary (metal fence, granite, gas stove, re-did 3 bathrooms with granite and marble/travertine). I still think you need 1 year's worth of savings - if you lost your job and had $0 income, could you pay all of your bills for a year?

Whether you have $10K or $1M to put down, I still think you should put down the 20%. If you only put down 3% because you can afford payments, what happens if the market value goes down 5%? You are now under water and owe more than your house is worth. It always sucks to lose money - but in this case, I'd rather lose out on equity than show up with a check should I have to sell.

3/25/2014 10:45:20 AM

Yeah always double check the PMI with the lender you getting the loan through. They should have that pretty clear for you.

Ifs and buts - anyone can lose their job at any time. It's a risk to buy a house and wipe out your savings. I have my corvette I could sell and liquidate if i needed funds to last me through the year. Me and wife got our house payment right where we want it - if one of us lost our job we could float by a few months on just income without going into savings to make the house payment. But i agree - always have an out/backup.

I mean ideally the more you can put down the better. Instant equity is great. Don't forget you have to get an appraisal done - that will really tell you what your house is worth compared to your neighborhood and what you are financing for. Most lenders will require this. Historically in wake county house prices has risen 2.5% last year and will continue (this was on my appraisal).

[Edited on March 25, 2014 at 11:01 AM. Reason : dd]

3/25/2014 10:52:26 AM

Quote :

"With that said, why are you buying a house if you can't even afford the 8% down? Seems like you may be over-leveraging."

nope. nope. nope.

Other than what the loan requires for a down payment, home buyers should think about how long they'll be in the home. Many mortgages never see their full term, as homes are often sold after 4-10 years. If you are buying a home and this will be your timeframe, it is often much better, financially, to put as little money down upfront, depending on what you do with that money over the life in your mortgage. Yes, putting more money down upfront lowers your monthly payment, but you traditionally see those savings only over the long-term mortgage.

3/25/2014 12:13:17 PM

Quote :

"sadly 20% was 120k"

Your math is off.

3/25/2014 1:03:17 PM

i heard a horror story about a divorce with a family doing something similar. Husband got the house, wife got the debt. Kinda sucked.

3/25/2014 1:08:50 PM

I heard a horror story about a guy whose son died, then he got a phone call one night saying that his son had been banned from the Wolf Web for posting Old School shit in the Lounge.

3/25/2014 2:28:09 PM

Quote :

" i heard a horror story about a divorce with a family doing something similar. Husband got the house, wife got the debt. "

Well if the wife doesnt pay the debt they (the bank) comin for da house...

3/25/2014 2:43:08 PM

Quote :

"Your math is off."

Not if the house costs $600K

I put down 20%, but only to avoid pmi. I would have put down 0% if I could do so without affecting anything else.

[Edited on March 25, 2014 at 3:29 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2014 3:28:56 PM

Yeah we did that. My fiance doesn't have a credit history (the ironic downside of being totally debt free) so we
put the mortgage under my name and the deed is in both our names. I don't mind, because chances are I'm going to live a lot longer than him.

Now, we're trying to get his credit history going, and it's been a total pain in my ass. Already been rejected from Home Depot (not because we can't just plop down the $$ for whatever appliances, but because of that lack of credit history). Might have to go with a "builder" card from the credit union or I may have to co-sign.

3/25/2014 5:09:10 PM

PMI goes away at 78% LTV on conventional loans. If you get an FHA, you get fucked with PMI for life of the loan.

3/25/2014 5:53:42 PM

PMI also goes away if you refinance out of it

3/25/2014 8:02:26 PM

Sure, but you're essentially under a new loan at that point.

3/25/2014 8:35:05 PM

Wow, they just changed that this past year. I bought my house in January last year. I got FHA and was told I could drop PMI after 5 years and 78% LTV. Apparently that changed summer time last year.

http://mynorthwest.com/800/2207994/FHA-no-longer-will-drop-mortgage-insurance-premiums

3/25/2014 8:55:14 PM

Yeah was June of 2013

3/25/2014 9:16:01 PM

Quote :

"PMI goes away at 78% LTV on conventional loans. If you get an FHA, you get fucked with PMI for life of the loan."

yeah thats the verbiage my loan folks used.

Don't get blind sided by FHA - my interest rate was really good on the FHA quote - like 4.0 good, but the PMI brought it back up to a 30yr fixed in terms of monies gone each month.

[Edited on March 25, 2014 at 9:51 PM. Reason : dd]

3/25/2014 9:50:23 PM

Quote :

"PMI goes away at 78% LTV on conventional loans. If you get an FHA, you get fucked with PMI for life of the loan."

Youre right about new FHA loans but there are some PMI products like LPMI that are technically life of loan products

3/25/2014 10:38:30 PM

For those of you who have done this, how hard do you think it would be to do after the fact?


Backstory: Girlfriend bought a house last year. Our intent was to re-fi once we get married and put my name on both Mortgage and Deed. Right now I'm paying half the mortgage but not getting the credit as such. I'm nearly certain that we wont be able to get a better rate if we were to re-fi just due to timing. Wat do?

3/26/2014 8:16:17 AM

Similar situation here. Girlfriend already owned the house when we got together. I've been living here for going on 6 years paying at least half (in most cases more like 2/3) of the Mortgage. Being on the deed doesn't really matter all that much to me, but I'd like the credit benefits of being on the mortgage.

3/26/2014 10:01:05 AM

Ask your accountant. I own my old townhouse on Centennial Campus with my brother. I lived in it for 9 years, only 2 with him (last 7 was with roommates and then wife before buying current house). My brother and I are on the deed, while my wife and I are on the mortgage. My accountant said he is allowed to claim half of the interest expense write off, provided that I only claimed half. We can deed that he is on the deed and now that I'm out, we both claim half of the income and half of the interest expense.

Regarding mortgage rates, I have the best one evar. 2.95% fixed for 30 years. That's why I stretched to get my forever house now.

3/26/2014 10:25:18 AM

Just my opinion, but if you can't afford to save up 20% and still have some savings left, you're buying above your means. I didn't buy a house untill I had 20%, enough to furnish it, and still have 2 months payments in savings.

3/26/2014 10:35:27 AM

^ Couldn't agree more. Since I am in a commission only job, I am not comfortable unless I have 12 months of savings. With that said, I expect to make sales, but this is a worst case scenario.

3/26/2014 11:06:58 AM

Quote :

"2.95% fixed for 30 years"

DAT 190% FREE MONEY!!!!

3/26/2014 11:12:08 AM

Quote :

"Just my opinion, but if you can't afford to save up 20% and still have some savings left, you're buying above your means. I didn't buy a house untill I had 20%, enough to furnish it, and still have 2 months payments in savings."

If you got 40k laying around , holler and share dat baller status

3/26/2014 11:56:41 AM

Quote :

"Just my opinion, but if you can't afford to save up 20% and still have some savings left, you're buying above your means. I didn't buy a house untill I had 20%, enough to furnish it, and still have 2 months payments in savings"

Based on what?

3/26/2014 2:53:06 PM

People with money making fun of people w/o money ITT.

Down payment strategy depends on a bunch of variables. It depends on a persons situation, philosophy on money, odds of moving out of area, how much they would spend renting a comparable home, and other things.

If you can put 20% down go for it! The loan terms will be much better without PMI, and if you have to move for some reason you are already in a better equity situation. If you have anything less than 20% might as well put the minimum you need to get in the house, save or invest that money, pay off other debt. Just don't blow it on stupid shit and have no money in savings.

3/26/2014 3:09:14 PM

I didn't pay a fucking dollar down. I'm waving two middle fingers in the air, suck my dick.

3/26/2014 4:20:05 PM

Look at those serf's who don't have 20% to put down. Mwhahaha...work harder serf, work harder...

3/26/2014 4:50:06 PM

A lot of parents give their kids too much money ITT

3/26/2014 5:33:07 PM

Lol. In northern Virginia if you wait until you have 20% to put down, you ain't never buying

3/26/2014 8:25:02 PM

^ hell thats true for a lot of people everywhere. I'd probably still be renting. What a waste of money.

3/26/2014 8:45:53 PM

I put down 20%, but I try not to keep too much cash on hand at the moment.

3/27/2014 10:09:25 AM

Douche Bag probably chose the most appropriate TWW username of all time.

3/27/2014 10:21:55 AM

I put 25% down, because I felt like it.

3/27/2014 10:44:39 AM

25% is excessive, unless it is a commercial property. Then I recommend 30-35%, but I suspect none of the TDubbers own commercial buildings.

3/27/2014 10:48:56 AM

the OP may want to do some research and see if doing that would make a difference in a divorce situation in the state he lives in...

3/27/2014 10:59:10 AM

closed today. Asked the lawyer about this. During closing the wife will sign a deed of trust and claim her interest in the property. We are both vested in this. If i don't pay, we both lose the house. If we get a divorce - it doesn't matter. It's half hers anyway.

3/27/2014 12:34:29 PM

Quote :

"25% is excessive, unless it is a commercial property. Then I recommend 30-35%, but I suspect none of the TDubbers own commercial buildings."

I just bought a commercial property last year. Had to put 25% down.

3/27/2014 12:50:00 PM