Apply separatetly for mortgages with spouse to get more rentals ?

Question

I have heard that eventually it gets harder to obtain mortgages after 4 or 5 . Does it make sense for spouses to obtain mortgages separately so can get more overall?

Assume that we both make good yearly wages and have good credit scores (700 plus)

Aaron Moore · Answer

You'll qualify for more mortgages if you only have one spouse's name on title and mortgage.

Once you have multiple properties it also makes life easier when one spouse applies for another mortgage... you only have to supply documents for the one spouse and their properties. Gathering documentation for rental property mortgages gets to be a lot of work the more properties you have.

So yes! If one spouse can qualify for the mortgage, then only use one spouse.

Jason D. Lewis · Answer

@James Edgar

@Evan McLeish

I put properties under whoever can support them to get approved.  You can sign a bare trust at the lawyers for a few hundred bucks to be secure.

Unfortunately, if your name is on title, then you need to service the debt.  all too often, we only care about our name being on title for ego reasons.  If you trust family, then leverage their help.

James Edgar · Answer

Good question Evan, I was just wondering the same thing,

Does anyone know if you can you have both names on Title as joint tenants and the loan in one spouses name? That seems to be the ideal way. Currently I have 1 property in my name exclusively, from before marriage and then we bought a property together as joint tenants and are both registered on MTG.

We are now looking at the third place and ideally we can be joint tenants on everything for ease of transfer upon death of either spouse.

Chris Ellis · Answer

That is certainly one tactic to avoid the next step from coming sooner. The question that becomes important is the D.S.C.R. and the ability to obtain the properties individually. What happens if you do that and get to 8 or 10 properties and still want to do more overall?

The answer is a portfolio loan. Now all those properties become 1 in a sense.