We never put both of us on the mortgages (we have bought two houses to live in together, plus several investments). What we do is, one of us buys it and gets the financing, and then after closing we go to a notary (you would need to go to a lawyer on top of the notary--I am a lawyer) and whichever one of us bought the house then signs it over from him/herself to both of us "as tenants by the entireties," taking it subject to the existing mortgage. Here's why we do it that way:
- Tenancy by the entireties (which isn't, I don't think, available in all states, so check yours) protects the house from the creditors of either one of us. The only creditors who could possibly have a chance at getting the house are (1) the mortgage holder or (2) creditors of both of us--in other words, creditors on loans that we both took out together, or--this is highly unlikely--people who manage to sue both of us for the same thing. Like, if we both did something together that caused them harm and they sued both of us, and won, then they might be able to get the house. NO ONE ELSE can touch it. You can own a house this way if you're *married* and if you either buy it together OR the person who buys it signs it over to the couple.
- Buying properties this way gives us flexibility. Husband wants to go back to school? He goes back to school. Wife got laid off, and now has only been in her new job for two months? No problem. We can still buy an investment property if the opportunity arises and we're otherwise financially okay, because our approach to buying investment properties doesn't require *both* of us to qualify for the loan.
- Having only one of us on the mortgage means the mortgage only shows up on one of our credit reports. I see no reason why our credit reports should make it look like, for example, BOTH of us have a $2500/mo mortgage payment when it's actually the same payment and we're both paying just a share of it. What if one of you wants to buy a car just for themselves? They might not qualify if all the mortgages are on both spouses' credit reports, because it will look like they have much more debt than they do.