Not an expert, just tryiny to help out since so many others have helped me...
785 debt payment 6000 income = 13% dti which leaves you about 30% dti = 1800 available for piti payment (principal, interest, taxes and insurance)
FHA will allow for 100% downpayment gift but you you have to be able to show that it isnt a loan and I think it must be a realtive but I could be wrong so if you are thinking FHA and 3.5 % down and gift and 200,000 house, then you are thinking of getting 7,000 from them which would give you a mortgage of 193,000
193,000 at 6% gives you a pi payment of 1150 so now calculate your taxes and insurance and you get your answer on can you afford it, taxes vary so widely, hard for me to say
fico scores are used but the mid score is used not average of the three and now a days, the mid score needs to be 620
as for other FHA requirements, they arent bad, employed in the same field for a few years, no baddies on your reports in the last 12 months, there is a limit on the cost of the house but it varies from place to place, I cant imagine that 200,000 is it though
oh and closing, fha allows 6% seller assist while conventional only allows 3% so you could possible get a motivated seller to pay most of your closing
without much in the bank though a lender might want to see a couple payments in reserves, you can use 401K for that
