No one ever posts the stories with NO issues, so I thought I would post ours! I have been reading here for months while we were getting a mortgage and was terrified of all of the horror stories. The reality was a breeze.
My husband got a new job out of state and we needed to buy a home. Our house in Michigan is very underwater and we cannot sell, so will be renting.
Anyway, we were able to get approved up to 49% DTI through a broker. Ours was only 39% with both mortgages, but he could have gone higher. You DO need 6 months reserves for both mortgages (total payment, including escrow) for conventional, but you do NOT need reserves with FHA. You cannot count rental income, so you do need to qualify for both though.
They only pulled our credit once, early on. No additional pulls, soft or hard. No crazy debt collectors coming out of the woodwork anyway, so no worries!
NO surprises, everything happened right on schedule. Put the offer in beginning of April and got clear to close a week before we needed it.
We went conventional, 5% down payment, got a 3.75 rate (one pesky collection from years ago bringing our score way down. We paid it a little less than 2 years ago, and that was the nail in the coffin. do NOT pay collections unless you PFD, it actually makes it worse!). IF we went FHA, we would have gotten 3.25, but crunching the numbers with the higher PMI made us choose conventional. We cannot deduct PMI on our taxes but can deduct interest, so it made more sense.
Oh another note. My husband does get bonus income, once yearly, but they did not count that at all, just the base salary. Luckily it was enough, but I was wondering if they would count it and they did not.
Hope this helps someone, if any questions, feel free to ask.
