Refinancing questions

[sportsguy]

I am 23 months post discharge ch7, I was single and had 35k in cc debt. I now am financially responsible and have 2 CC's I use but pay off in full. I paid off my students loans and car after discharge, now my only bills in my name are cell phone and 2 cc's.

I am now married, she bought the house 10 months ago (before marriage) with her credit only(800+ FICO with no debts). It was a 40yr conv. mortgage as she still had her old house it was all she could get. Her old house sold a few months ago. Now she/we want to refinance to get a 30yr FHA or conv. mortgage rather than our current 40yr conv. mortgage and we have tons of equity as she bought the house cheap as a foreclosure and we totally renovated it. House tax value is at least $75k more than we paid for it. We want to refinance and get an extra $25-30k to do exterior upgrades as well as get a better interest rate (at 5.6% now).

Would it be best for us to refinance without me since I was not on the original loan due to my ch7? I have to sign title paperwork due to the marriage interest. If I am on the refinance, do I have to mention (or provide paperwork) or sign that I have had a bankruptcy?

If I am NOT on the refinance, do I have to mention or sign anywhere that I have had a bankruptcy? I prefer to not have to.

Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to having me co-sign on the refinance?

We've been told she cannot refinance until the 1 year mark. Is this true?

How do they look at job and income changes when refinancing? Will they deny due to her getting a new job (15mi. away instead of 100mi. away) within the last 2 months? Income after new job will be $5k less or so. No outstanding debts.


Thanks

[BassBoy]

Okay........let's see if I can get to these......

One thing right off the bat.....if her new employment is in the same field, for roughly the same money and she's been in that field for many years, that's all the lender needs to see. It shows stable and steady employment and income, which is very good.

You don't have to be on the refinance, and if you decide against it, you don't need to supply anything to the lender. You can base the refinance on her income alone. And because you elect to not be on the loan, the lender won't need to see your credit, so no chance of the lender seeing the BK. No documentation of your BK would be required either.

If you elect to join the loan, obviously her better credit will put her first on the loan and you'll be the co-borrower and your BK shouldn't effect the approval, terms or rate. It would help for you to call a few lenders/mortgage brokers and ask these questions.

And please try to be very careful with home loans and taking cash out. This is one of the factors in the recent foreclosure crisis. If you need to make some repairs, try to see if you can live with what its like, save the money and make the repairs or upgrades while you're living there? If not, I'm not against using equity to make much needed repairs, but again, be careful with how much you take as cash out.