Ok so here is my situation: My girlfriend (soon to be fiance' ! ) and I want to buy a town house, I am 27 and have been self employed for the last 2 years ( I also have 6 months of w2's as well) with an average income of 45,000, the year before I became self employed I made 45k as well. I have about 10,000 down and will receive somewhere around 5000 more when we get engaged (in a few months).
My EQ is around 680 1 collection (1%) utl 3200$ total available CL (4 open CC's) 1 open installlment loan 5000 high 4000 left. (131$ payment)
My EX is prob in the middle 1 judgment 2600$ unpaid, (out of SOL)
My TU is around 580 6 collections totalling 1500$ (3 out of SOL)
Her EQ is 760 lots of paid off student loans and CC's paid perfect (thanks to her mom)
Her TU is 750
Her EX unknown
She only makes 18000 a yr, still in school (24yrs old) til may the she will have an internship that will pay 11000 she has been working at the same job for a year and wont have a real job til next august. (2011) She will be making 50K-80K when she does get a job.
we are trying to buy a 220,000K home and want to do it by this nov, dec. Is it possible ? I am hoping that with the little debt and her good scores we will qualify. I think my middle score will be around 610 by then...
Any input and/or advice would be great 
What I learned from a mortgage lender this earlier this week: It doesn't matter how old a judgment is, if it is unpaid it will prevent you from closing on a house. You'll probably need to contact the person or company that has the judgment against you and negotiate either monthly payments to get it paid off by the time you want to get a house, or if you have the money to pay it in full now, ask them if they will make sure it is off your credit report if you send them the money.
We can probably try to negotiate for a smaller amount, but they're holding all the cards - if they know we're looking for a mortgage, they know we have to settle the judgment.