Looking to Buy My First Home. Any tips?

[Anonymous]

I'm ready to move out of my mom's finally after saving up a bunch of money and getting debt-free. I'm almost 30 and am ready to have my own place. My bankruptcy is discharged as of Feb. 2015. Every bank I talk to won't give me a conventional loan for a few more years, but I qualify to get an FHA loan. Since I trust the plethora of knowledge on these forums more than any other source of financial information on the web, I want to tap into our collective intellect a little.

So give you a little bankground and what I have to work with, here's what I got.

$15,000 spread among three bank accounts.

$18,000 car loan with Capital One (was debt-free until I just HAD to get this new Dodge Challenger, love it)

$1,500 credit card balance (will be paid off on next paycheck)

Bankruptcy discharge Feb. 2015

FACO/Credit Karma score 698. Recent transunion credit card rejection letter said 660.

30 hard pulls in the last two years.

Anything I should keep in mind? I'm a single guy, so I'm looking at some smaller homes priced around $70,000-$100,000. I want to try to get pre-approved for more than that in case I need to do repairs and buy some furniture and appliances.

[Anonymous]

What about employment? Currently employed, how long at same place. How recent are most of those credit pulls?

[StartingOver10]

The most important part is your gross income and your Debt To Income. So what is your current car payment?

Also, no one can tell if you are within the qualifying range using FAKO scores (Credit Karma). Pull your real mortgage scores here - you can use the 3B report.

[me12345]

This is the 5 simple rules of qualifying for an FHA Mortgage

   1. No Foreclosures within the last 3 years (2 years for BK)

   2. At least 2 years employment history.

   3. DTI no more than 50% of Gross income (total consumer debt + new house payment)

   4. FICO scores of at least 620 or higher with no liens or judgments

   5. 3.5% of purchase price for down payment. (This can be gifted)

That's it...if you meet the above criteria then you will qualifiy 99% of the time.... Its that simple.

Thanks,

[NC_Mtg_Loaner]

Me12345 is spot on, but  you may also find many lenders will even go down to a 580 credit score as long as you have 1 year on the same job, some will even exceed the 50% DTI restriction with an AUS approval among other things. 

Check your budget to see if you can afford a 15 or 20 year amortization schedule--I promise you'll be happier in 5 years that you did--regardless of where life takes you.