ADDING A CO-SIGNER TO YOUR MORTGAGE

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ADDING A CO-SIGNER

  • What Is Co-Signing?

    Co-signing is the process of buying with another person. Technically, if you have two applicants on a mortgage, that's co-signing. 

  • When Would You Need A Co-Signer?

    The most common situation where we see co-signing is where you've got two people looking to purchase a property.


    It can also come from one person purchasing a property and then they add their parents, a friend, or a family member.


    The idea is that person is going to help them qualify for a larger loan amount.

  • Why Would Someone Want To Have A Co-Signer?

    A lot of people are co-signing to increase their qualifications.


    If you can add mom and dad's income to the mix, it might mean you can qualify for extra hundreds of thousands of dollars more in terms of a mortgage.


    This can bump you up to that next level of property in some cases or just get you into the market. 

  • Are There Any Downsides To Co-Signing?

    1. People thinking that a co-signer will help last minute and save them.


    We have some people who say, if something goes wrong I'll just add a co-signer.


    A lot of co-signers don't help you. It might be because they don't have enough income or because you have too much debt.


    2. You have a cosigner who doesn't fully comprehend what they're doing.


    They may need to end up doing their own thing in a few years, so they haven't planned for it.


    It just comes down to proper planning at the end of the day.


    3. A co-signer might not agree with you.


    You may have disagreements around who owns what amount of the property. This could cause legal ramifications.


    Do your due diligence and make sure you've had the conversation in advance. Treat it like a proper pre-approval and talk to a lawyer so we know who owns what in the property. 

HOW DO YOU GET THE PROCESS STARTED? 

It's the same as a typical pre-approval.


You start by reaching out to our mortgage team.


We start with a phone call to understand your circumstance where we hope to get the information from all of the applicants.


After building an online application, you provide the complimentary documents. These are documents that you need to prove your income or situation.


From there, we do a standard review as you would if it was two applicants. The only difference in this situation is we're adding the other individuals. We make sure everybody's up to date through the whole process.

Get Started
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