Loan qualifications, inheriting large student debt from marriage

[Cory Raizor]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on the impact getting married will have on my/our ability to qualify for conventional financing. I'm planning on getting started as a buy and hold investor in the next year - my plan is to start via at least one if not 2 back to back househacks with an FHA loan.

I have a pretty high income and relatively little debt (under 15K combined consumer and student loans) so my debt to income is quite good. However... I'm getting married in several months and my fiance (whom I love dearly) is making only ~$45K/year with nearly $185K in student loans.

Will her debts just wreck our DTI ratio?

I'm a bit confused on if her student loan debt will be included in my qualifications when seeking a mortgage. Only if we file taxes jointly? Only if we get the property in both our names or put the mortgage in both our names? 

Just looking for a general discussion, I understand not everyone is a lawyer or CPA.

Also - before we get into the discussion of tackling loans before investing.. I'm pretty set on at least starting a househack. Doing so I can reduce my housing expenses from the ~$800-$1000/month to as close to free as possible. I then intend to use half of that savings against those loans and half towards a next house hack..

[Carl Fischer]

@Cory Raizor

Many things to consider. Fiancé most likely won’t be able to help on the loan/mortgage so keep it separate. You can have her on title if you like but don’t put her on the mortgage.  I find that works best anyway throughout your life.  My wife and I alternate on who gets the mortgages for the different properties -we try never to put both people on the same mortgage because it limits borrowing power. 

 It depends what the interest rate is on the student loan how fast you want to pay it off -as an example if it’s 3% or 4% and you’re making 10 or 15% on a house hack you can put all your money into the house hack and then use that money to pay off her debt.  The higher the interest rate on the loan the faster you want to pay it back in general.