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Would it be possible for you to qualify for the mortgage on your income/assets alone? If you have good credit, that may be the best option.

If that's not possible I would probably wait. Does your husband have debt that he is paying off in order to build up his credit? If so I would give it some time to get better before trying to buy a house. You're probably going to get a really high interest rate with that kind of credit score so waiting a little while could save you a LOT of money in the long run.

I would personally wait until your husband gets his credit score up - there is a lot of great info on the forums at myfico.com, they have forums tailored for all types of credit issues (as well as general credit rebuilding, and mortgage advice), so he can address whatever his specific credit issue is.

I think for a conventional mortgage you need a credit score around 680+. FHA scores can be lower, but your interest rate will be higher, and if you put the minimum down for FHA, you'll be paying several hundred extra per month in PMI insurance, so it might make more financial sense to wait until he can improve his score.

Once he gets regular/current on his credit cards/loans, it should take 6-12 months for his credit score to go up. My husband was SO forgetful and never paid bills on time, or never told me about that. So that happened to us, when all of a sudden we applied for a loan and realized his credit was about 600. I was so disappointed! He apologized and now I pay all the bills.

Anyhow, all the loan agencies I've talked to (and we talked to many since we were in a similar situation) was that 620 is the absolute MINIMUM, even for FHA (which is what we applied for).

So, like PP's said, either take out a mortgage just on your own, or wait up to a year and try again.

Can you apply for the loan on your own? We did that - my husband's name is the only name on this house because I still owned my house when we bought it. It also helps you stay within a certain price range when shopping for homes.

@blushink: I was told not to close cc's when I was home buying. I think it looks bad when you close cc's. Maybe this is different where you live. I was told to leave them open and empty, if possible. If I remember correctly, each cc has a credit limit and maybe a balance. If you have 5 credits cards with a combined balance of $2000 and combined credit limit of $10,000; you are using about 20% of your credit limit. If you close credit card with no balance but had a credit limit of $2000. By closing that credit card, you now have $2000 of debt spread out between 4 cc's with a combined credit limit of $8000. Now, it looks like you using 25% of your debt allotment. I think banks like to see how responsible you are with debt, not how many credit cards you have open. I think that is why they recommend you ask your creditor to raise your credit limit so your debt ratio doesn't look that high.

I would invest in fixing his credit before trying to get a loan. They use credit scores as a gauge because it's a predictor of default. A year or two of on time responsible payments should help get him on track. You can read about some surprising things that can improve his credit such as decreasing the number of cards, etc.

Wishing you the best of luck!

Do not close credit cards! Pay them off but do not close them.