Husband and wife investors, whose name to put on deed?

[Randy Fauske]

Hello, 

My wife and I are buying our 3rd and 4th "doors" (same property with a single family and an apartment). Owner financing.  Are there advantages (for acquiring bank loans in the future) to getting the loan/deed in either one of our names versus getting the loan/deed put into our names jointly?

Thank you.

[Steve Vaughan]

Originally posted by @Randy Fauske:

OK, my spouse has no W2 job.  So if I understand this correctly and the owner will allow us to finance in her name it'll be easier for me to get my 10 'easy'  bank loans later without this one counting against me. Yes?

Thank you again!

 With owner financing I go with both our names, but we have long terms so refinancing in a short time is not an issue.  If you have a balloon coming due in say 3 to 5 yrs, I would go with her name.  Easier to qualify for a refi than purchase.  May get a freebie for you if there's enough equity and her fico is good.   Worse case scenario she will have to quitclaim to you later.  Set up a community property agreement if you aren't in a community property state.

I established a mgt co (s-corp) a long time ago that all of our rents go into.  My wife is a 45% shareholder in that. Helps her qualify with 'business income'.  Either one of us can get a loan, yet neither of us have a good w-2.  

You are smart to consider not burdening both of your credit unnecessarily!  I know it's by default for you, but many don't realize they shouldn't both be on loans if they don't need to be. Then they run out of easy loans and say- hey, we should've done it differently. We could've had 20!