Found a house we love, but scared to pull trigger

[peepers]

so my husband and I are going to keep his current starter home (which he has had for 10 years) AND apply together for OUR home. It would be easier to do improvements to his home while not living there since its tiny, then list it. The 2 mortgages would equal the one mortgage amount had we sold first then bought. Plus with no kids, we don't need a huge home. We'd go thru VA,. We just had a toilet hose burst and spew for 30 min and had to pay $3500 for mitigation and carpet as I didn't want to have an insurance claim for a small amount (ded was $2,000 anyway). My plan was to have utilization at 5-9% at application time. However we both will have a couple grand in CC debt. How harsh are they when you apply with CC balances outstanding? This is like kids....if you wait for the right time, it will never be the right time. But I love this house and the price. I think its time to start the pre-qual process. His scores are around 700 and mine are below.

[StartingOver10]

They aren't harsh at all.

Utilization affects score and the score determines the rate in a conventional loan. Not so much for a VA loan. If your scores in your signature are accurate you have nothing to worry about scorewise.

Is the current mortgage on a VA loan or something else?

[peepers]

his current is NOT VA....he bought it prior to joining at the ripe young age of 28 my last Discover Fico was 796 so those numbers are only fluctuating a few points with a tiny bit of utilization difference (toilet hose blow-outs when not home cause an expensive mess, especially when its not worth going through homeowners afterall). His scores in low 700's. I actually did a prequalification over phone last night to see how much home we could afford while him still carrying his current mortgage. We plan to fix it up prior to listing once we move. NFCU said $279-$299K. *thud* but we have no need for a large home and only looking in $160-175K range here in Iowa. I think we have decided to wait until January to get pre-approval due to new accounts opened this year.