Does my spouse have to be on my VA Loan?
When it comes time to buy your home with your VA Loan, having your spouse or significant other (more on that in another post) on your VA Loan can be a good thing or a bad thing.
If your spouse works/has stable, dependable income & has decent credit, adding them to the VA Loan may mean you qualify for more house but what if your spouse has bad credit or significant debt?
Well as long as you’re not in a community property state, you can leave your spouse off the loan & you can qualify for your VA Loan based on just your income, assets & credit.
But what if you’re buying in a community property state like Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin?
The answer depends on the lender you’re dealing with & your specific scenario.
Most lenders will tell you that you have to count your spouse’s debts against your income even if the spouse is not going be on your VA Loan in a community property state! This would only apply to your spouse’s individual debt whereas any joint debt you have together would already be counted.
So let’s say your spouse has some credit issues & they do not meet the minimum requirements. You could leave them off your VA Loan application but you would not be able to include their income & you would have to include their debts & qualify under the debt to income ratio requirements with just your income in a community property state. If you’re in any of the other 41 states, this is not applicable!
Now for the good news. If your spouse has their own source of income & it’s enough to cover their individual debts, those debts do NOT have to be counted against your income when applying for a VA Loan in a community property state when the spouse is not on the VA Loan!
But you need to find a VA Loan expert like John Burke with Great Plains Bank who knows the actual VA Loan guidelines & who has investors that will follow them.
The other benefit is you spouse does not to be counted as a dependent when calculating the minimum residual income requirements for a VA Loan.
To get a VA Loan in a community property state or in any other state, contact John Burke with Great Plains Bank at (877)228-9069 or by filling out the form below.
Take a look at the recommendations from some of my past clients on my Trulia profile by clicking the link;
http://www.trulia.com/mortgage-lender-profile/MTG%20Banker/#reviews
