I think they have rules for all of those income types and they’re all treated somewhat differently. W-2 is easiest, but they still want to see 2 years of employment. Rental income is also straight forward and can be used to offset rental expenses, but they want to see 1 year seasoning or a signed lease. Self-employment income needs to be on the last tax return. Don’t know about passive private equity investments, but I imagine they’re also reported on some form on the tax return.
To @scripta’s point, in theory, all conventional lenders follow Fannie/Freddie’s guidelines. In practice, some have more experience than others and thus know the rules for various income types better than others.
I would advise an independent broker in this situation because they will have access and experience with a bunch of lenders and will know who to direct your application to. They are also incentivized via their commission to close your loan so a broker won’t waste your time.
The fly by night online correspondents are fine if you have a vanilla file, but their underwriters usually can’t handle anything beyond basic income and assets.
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I bought my house before I was married. Is there any benefit to adding my wife to the house deed/title? There is no one that could or would legitimately contest anything in probate if I were to pass away. I forgot to mention it during the early part of the refinance process and now I’m thinking it might be too late. Also, I don’t really want to pay extra for it if there’s no real benefit.
Also, I was just told by my refinancing lender not to pay my June 1 mortgage payment or it could mess things up. Specifically, the website says:
We expect your loan to fund early in June. Please do not make your June mortgage payment as it could adversely affect your required cash to close.
On my mortgage statement, it says a late fee is due if I pay after 6/16, so I guess I should cancel my auto pay that comes out 6/1 and just wait and see when it looks like the refinance is going to close?
At least in California, probate takes a cut based on the full asset value (not equity) of houses > $150K, so it gets expensive. Adding her to the title OR putting the title in trust should avoid probate, which I think is the only benefit. But IANAL. One benefit of NOT having a spouse on a title is if the spouse is in a high-liability profession (lawsuits coming for assets).
Ask the title company, it should be pretty simple and shouldn’t cost anything. Even if it is too late, you should be able to add her any time after the refi. You may have to pay a recording fee. It should not trigger any loan clauses.
Yes. Check your Closing Disclosure, it should mention the closing date and how much will be sent as a payoff to the current lender. It should include the payment for May (due June 1) and daily interest for all the days in June up to the closing date.
Worst case is you’d get a refund for overpayment from your current lender in a few weeks. If your refi processor does not close by 6/16, they should cover any late fees.
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I asked them to add my wife, and one of the “Tasks” I now have to complete is this:
Change Title Vesting:
How would you like your title vesting to read?
- meed18, a married man/woman, as his/her sole and separate property
- other
When I choose other, it asks me what it should say.
I asked them about it and this is the reply I got:
We cannot advise you on what this should say, but I would recommend doing a bit of research on the most common ways to hold title in Virginia. For your reference, the common tenancy options are:
-joint tenants
-joint tenants with full right of survivorship
-tenants by the entirety
-tenants in common
Any advice on what my title vesting should say? This is what I’m thinking:
meed18 and meed18wife, a married couple, as joint tenants with full right of survivorship
Here’s my usual answer:
but I don’t know the answer for a non- community property state. I’d look more into tenants by entirety vs joint tenants. It is true that they can’t advise you – it is a legal matter and they’re not lawyers.
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Thanks for your help. I talked to a paralegal in my family that has worked for decades in family law and she said they always use tenants by entirety here, so your hunch was correct.
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Did you stick w/ better?
Yes. I would probably be closed now, but asking for the title change pushed things back. I made my June payment last week, so they are getting my new payoff now and will probably be scheduling closing for late this week or early next week as soon as they get it.
My current mortgage servicer kept saying they could match it, but haven’t actually put anything on paper, so as soon as I have a closing date scheduled with Better, I’ll be breaking the news to them.
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got 2% 10-year fixed conventional, for negative $200 cost. good deal?
Depends. Are you getting $200 back after closing costs are paid, or are you just getting $200 to apply towards closing costs?
State/loan amount are also helpful as those two factors greatly influence the kind of deal you can get.
the former, of coz 
I don’t do refi with costs.
State: CA
Amount: 485000
Check LenderFi. I am seeing 1.875% with a little cash back but that assumes a few things… I picked an LA zip and assumed you had about 70% LTV and were willing to have an escrow account.
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Why get 2% for 10 years if you can get 2.75% for 30?
I would agree long term is better to beat inflation.
My thinking is we won’t be in the home after 10 years. In this case, maybe it doesn’t make sense to pay higher interest.
You’d be able to use more of that borrowed money until you sell, since the monthly mortgage payments on the 30-year are much lower.
I suppose there’s no chance you’ll be there longer than 10 years or decide to keep it as a rental?
in CA, rental for expensive SFH is a money losing game. So no.
Maybe. With capped property tax increases, fixed low-interest mortgage, and rent always going up, it becomes profitable eventually.
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Rates also seem to be trending down. They’re near late-january’s rates at the place I’m looking. (with around Jan 1 being the lowest rates there were.)
I wonder if this change is already priced in to new quotes or not…