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HomeIsWithU
Baby #2 on the way!
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Member since 9/07 7816 total posts
Name: Jenn
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How is interest rate determined for married couples?
DH and I bought a townhouse 3 years ago (before we were married) but DH was the only one on the mortgage.
We're now house hunting for a single family home and we need to both be on the mortgage (we need BOTH of our incomes to be taken into account in order to be able to afford in the price range we're looking in). However, DH has excellent credit and I have poor credit. We're both really worried that my poor credit is going to drive our interest rate sky high. Does anyone know how lenders determine the interest rate on a mortgage for married couples? Is the highest or Lowest credit score used, or is it only the highest earner, or is it a combined score??
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Posted 4/28/14 4:16 PM |
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Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate
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babyface10
LIF Adolescent
Member since 3/11 804 total posts
Name:
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How is interest rate determined for married couples?
They use all 3 credit agencies for both and then take the lowest I believe. My credit was much higher than DH's but they used his. His was still over 680 so it was good anyway thank god. Good Luck with it though.
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Posted 4/28/14 4:28 PM |
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nraboni
Uggh...
Member since 10/09 6905 total posts
Name: Nicole
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How is interest rate determined for married couples?
I was told they take the middle score of each person against all three credit agencies and then go with the lower of the two.
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Posted 4/28/14 4:41 PM |
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KarenK122
The Journey is the Destination
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Member since 5/05 4431 total posts
Name: Karen
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How is interest rate determined for married couples?
Usually they look at the middle score for both. But talk to a mortgage professional because maybe your husband can qualify just himself and then your credit would not be an issue. When we were looking, I was amazed at what we qualified for, almost triple what I was thinking.
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Posted 4/28/14 4:44 PM |
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NYCGirl80
I love my kiddies!
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Member since 5/11 10413 total posts
Name:
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Re: How is interest rate determined for married couples?
I could be wrong, but from what I understand, if you're both on the application, they will look at both scores, but basically use the lower of them.
I think it will really matter how low yours is. I'd talk to a mortgage lender and find out what you can do to get it up, and how long that might take.
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Posted 4/28/14 5:06 PM |
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Beth
The Key to your new home....
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Member since 2/06 24849 total posts
Name: Beth
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Re: How is interest rate determined for married couples?
yes- they will use the lower persons middle score
680 is the minim for a conventional- but you will need more assets at the score then you would at 700
I just had to switch to a FHA loan b/c of that- but the FHA has a much lower rate that's not credit score driven
I do this for a living- and it confuses me- I would speak to your lender about your options before getting too deep into the process
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Posted 4/29/14 10:32 AM |
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blu6385
Member since 5/08 8351 total posts
Name:
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How is interest rate determined for married couples?
I worked with the lender ... I got a pre approval and he then told me if we wanted to get a better interest rate we had to fix DH credit history. He sent me to company that did this. it cost $$$ and I hated to do it but it had to be done. I know you can do it yourself but we had no time to work with the creditors so I just paid and it did help our interest rate
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Posted 4/29/14 11:55 AM |
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