Should Married People Be Buying a House Without Their Spouse? | Hauseit®

Should Married People Be Buying a House Without Their Spouse: https://www.hauseit.com/should-married-people-be-buying-a-house-without-their-spouse/Show more

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You certainly can buy a house without your spouse, and sometimes this may be the wiser move if your spouse has poor credit or lots of existing debt. However, whether you should buy a house without your significant other depends on your pre-nuptial agreement, state laws around community property and the state of your relationship.

So When Should You Buy a House Without Your Spouse?

Your Spouse Has Bad Credit

Your spouse might have bad credit or simply a lot of existing debt which would make it hard for them to secure a loan. Worse still, your spouse’s poor financial condition may affect your ability to get a loan if you applied together as co-borrowers.

As a result, sometimes it makes more sense to simply exclude one spouse from the loan application and to apply for a mortgage individually. Keep in mind however this often will mean that your spouse won’t be allowed on the title as well. Most banks will require everyone on the title for a property to also be a co-borrower.

You Wish to Keep an Investment Property Separate

You may simply wish to keep what’s yours, yours. Perhaps you have a rock solid pre-nuptial agreement with your spouse that allows property purchased separately with individual funds to be kept as separate property.

Buying Your Spouse out of a House

Buying your spouse out of a house may an interesting move if you wish to make a house separate vs marital property, perhaps in advance of a divorce.

This can be advantageous if you do plan on getting a divorce, as this will preclude any messy fights about the ownership of a house, and who gets to live in it.

If you do decide to pursue this route, first check your pre-nuptial agreement to make sure that this type of transaction is allowed, especially if the house is marital property. Your pre-nuptial agreement should specify whether marital, jointly owned property can be made back into separate property.

Once this is confirmed, then it’s up to you and your spouse to determine a fair value for the house. Read our guide on how to price my home for sale so you can learn how to do a comparative market analysis and come up with a reasonable price for your home.

Once you’ve done that, you can then simply offer to pay your spouse a pro rata share of the valuation.

Alternatively, you can hire an appraiser or simply get price opinions for free from several brokers. You can also take things a step further by actually listing the home for sale, and seeing what the open market will bear.

Keep in mind that testing the market can be risky if you’ve signed a traditional Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement because you may be forced to pay your broker commission as long as a “ready, willing and able” buyer is found at your listing price. As a result, you could inadvertently force yourself to sell, or pay a typical broker commission in NYC of 6% of the sale price!

Pro Tip: You can avoid this situation by testing the market with an Agent Assisted FSBO listing which you can de-list at any time. Unlike a traditional listing for 6% in commission, you can choose when, if and who to sell to, if at all. Furthermore, you can save all 6% in commission if you find a direct buyer!

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