First Time House Buyers...advice?

You'll be fine. I bought a house last year by myself with a credit history very similar to that of your wife (assuming shes paying on time). Got a pretty good rate too at 3.125% on a 15 yr mortgage.

To be honest, they seemed more concerned about me proving my income and current assets.

My wife and I just bought our first house. I have excellent credit and my wife does too, but hers is about 50 points lower than me. The bank used the lower of the credit scores for the calculations - it was still north of 750 so I don't think it mattered all that much.

The bank is likely just going to turn around and sell your loan, and they can get a higher price based on your credit score - so you have some leverage there. Just be careful about having banks run your credit - it puts a small dent in your credit score by something like 5 points and lasts for 2 years, so don't go to 5 different banks getting checks.

The other thing I would recommend is to talk to some folks in the area and get recommendations for LOCAL banks. We initially got pre-approval through USAA as I have always been 100% satisfied with them as my bank, but the local banks demolished USAA on the mortgage offerings.

Just do your homework, don't get too freaked out about getting everything perfect since it is the first time.

quote:

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If you just bought the car, that was a mistake. Never make a major purchase right before you buy a house. Never.

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this is true

We bought a car in February, we wouldn't close til probably September.

You are good doing it in your name alone. You will be good to 45 % dti on conforming and 50 % on a government loan. She can. Be o. Title even if she is not on the loan.

My wife and I are buying our first in ~August. We are in a similar situation where my credit is better than the wife and we bought a new car in December. Our broker told us that basically, credit = rate and income = loan amount. We have the option of adding my wife's income to a mortgage, getting the higher loan amount, but getting one tier higher rate. Or, use only my income for better rate, but lower loan amount. There is no reason we should get a bigger/better house than what I can get approved for.