Here’s the situation. My boyfriend and I aren’t married yet, but we are looking for houses together very soon. After doing some loan calculators online, we finally went to a mortgage lender and got pre-qualified. Alone – I qualify for 0,000. But that’s not really enough for the market we are in and what we need for our families. We’ve been told he can be on the deed but not the loan. So here’s the question, if we got married, what would happen to our combined credit scores? Would they combine them? Would it hurt me at that point? Our combined incomes would put us where we need to be but would the banks even care?
Thank you in advance for your help. This whole process can be so stressful!!!
I am assuming his credit score is not as good as yours. If you are going to use his income you must use his credit. Work at trying to improve his credit score as soon as possible. They would not necessarily combine your credit but they would consider both of your credit scores. If a credit score is below 680 your interest rates and available loans will be effected greatly. Take the time to build his credit and buy a home that you both will be happy with. Depending on what caused the credit issue you can sometimes write letter of explanations, pay off debts that are collection status and many other things. Search for credit repair suggestions or ask your loan officer. Good Luck with your home shopping!
When you marry, your credit scores do not combine merely because you have married.
Of course, if the two of you are borrowers on the same loan, then anything bad that happens to that loan would affect both of you – say if payments were made late for instance.
If you both apply for a mortgage together, then you would have the added benefit of his income. Of course, if his credit is really poor, then this would adversely affect whether a bank would approve the loan.
Yes, you are correct that you can both be on the deed but not on the mortgage. However, once he’s on the deed, he is an owner too – but he doesn’t have any legal obligation to repay the loan if he is not on it (with certain exceptions to married couples in community property states).