mortgages in wife's name

[Mark Baldwin]

So I'm considering to refinance my home (I could comfortable afford the new payment) and pull out some cash in order to quickly scale in the SFR space. My wife and I file taxes jointly, though almost all of our income comes from me. Will she still be able to get 10 mortgages in her name, while I get 10 in mine? Or will she not show enough income to qualify for her 10? Thanks for the help!

[Steve Vaughan]

I'm the last to give advice on borrowing, but we did it the same way with separate mortgages. 

It will depend on your wife's DTI. The payment + all other debts she's tied to can't exceed like 45% of her monthly income.

We can each qualify even though neither of us earns much of a paycheck because we have 0 consumer debt and a mgt corp we are both shareholders of. All of our rentals run thru the mgt co whether we own the assets individually or our commercial apt bldgs which are in LLCs,  resulting in k-1 income for each of us from 3 sources. 

Saying take cash out of your house like its an ATM or something doesn't sound like you are counting closing costs or the PITA it is. That capital will cost at least $4k most likely. Sometimes a HELOC is a better option. Either way, I wouldn't refi it out of her name if she won't be able to get another loan.