Second Homes and Mortgages

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

Some people looking to buy a second home for either their own leisure or to possibly resell in the future will look into mortgaging that home as well. Many wonder if this is even possible, can you pull out a new mortgage for another home? The answer is yes, you can. However, there are a few things to understand.

Second Homes and Mortgages

When getting any loan, including a mortgage, the lender will calculate your credit score and will also look at your debt. If you already have a mortgage on one home, keep in mind that every dollar owed on that mortgage counts towards you being in debt. This debt ratio weighs heavily in the lender?s calculations. What that means is, even if you can handle the payments of this mortgage perfectly fine, the interest rate will be considerably higher.

If the interest rate and payment plan is manageable and beneficial for your plans, then by all means look into getting that mortgage and the second home. It is difficult for most people to be able to do something like this due to the high costs of mortgages, but some people can definitely handle it.

Another possibility is to use the equity on your current home instead. If you own a good chunk of the equity on your current home, you should consider looking into a home equity loan or line of credit. These forms of loans against the home are essentially a 2nd mortgage on your first home and the interest rates are fairly low. This is a much advised option if you have ownership of a good amount of equity in your home.

Buying a second home and mortgaging it in addition to your first mortgage is definitely possible. But, especially in this case, it is extremely important to look into all options available since it gets trickier the second time around and the interest rates are bound to be higher. Still, over 30 percent of home purchases over the last three years have been second homes, so it can certainly be done.