Co-Ownership

Today we're going to talk about co-ownership or how somebody can help you to qualify for a mortgage that you perhaps don't qualify for on your own.

There are two terms that are used to describe when somebody helps you qualify for a mortgage who does not occupy the property with you, and that is cosigner and guarantor. They're often used interchangeably, but they mean very different things.

A cosigner is somebody who is on the mortgage to help you qualify, but whose name also appears on title of the property.

A guarantor is on the mortgage to help you qualify, but is left off title of the property, so they hold no ownership of the property itself.

The most common, way to help somebody qualify for a mortgage, or the most common thing that a lender wants to see is a cosigner. They want that person to be on mortgage and on title. The only times that we're able to use a guarantor is when it's a spouse who wants to be left off title of the property, but is used to help their spouse qualify for the mortgage.

There are so many complexities to this topic and many others, so give our team a call and we can walk you through your specific situation.