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No idea of the chances, but it doesn't seem like a good idea, no?

No credit history and an income that is low will make it really tough for them, I think. Banks have curtailed lending activity a lot in the past few years post financial crisis and they are still wary to lending to anyone except for those with pristine credit history. Might be tough but I suppose they won't know unless they apply...which by the way might hurt their credit score. They need to establish some form of good history and show that they can make payments on time. Opening a CC and having a very small balance that is always paid in full and on time is a good way to start.

Ditto everything @Mrs. Jacks: has said. Your mortgage payment should never be more than 30% of your income and you should have 6-12 months of living expenses in savings before buying a home or making any large investment. Without good credit history even if you could get a loan it would be at an extremely high rate. It makes much better financial sense to establish great credit before applying for a loan.

I agree with Mrs. Jacks.

They probably will want to go with an FHA loan because you have to put less down (3.5% last I looked) and the credit score requirement is a little bit lower. However, you have to get an FHA approved home (most fixer uppers and foreclosures dont always meet the criteria) and its a bit harder to get the mortgage insurance off of the loan (actually have to refinance).

We make considerably more than $15K, but I can tell you what our finacial advisor told us.

1. Get 1 credit card (if joint) or one per person. Charge on it monthly and pay it off. She suggested a tank of gas or a bill.

2. Get a small loan (for us she recommended a secure loan where you borrow against yourself.) and pay it off on time. We put in $1000 into a CD and borrowed $1000 against it. At the end of the day it cost us total $18 to do this.

This is because there are 2 types of credit revolving (credit card) and loan. Then she recommended we purchase a car. Then a year after that apply for FHA to try for a house.

Their local bank should be able to sit down with them and have these converastions with them and come up with a personalized plan for them to get them started. (We bank with Capital one, and this service is free to memebers)

The amount you want doesn't seem too bad, (our home loan is probably 2.5x our salary) but it might be hard without credit and you wont get the best rates. I agree with April_Showers suggestions to build credit first.

@Arden: Post housing market colalpse there are lots of regulations on loan amounts in relation to closing costs. DH is a loan officer for a bank and has explained that now its a federal law the closing costs (title fees, bank fees, etc.) can't be more than 5% of the loan amount. So a $15,000 loan might be very difficult to swing unless your lender has VERY low costs. As a baseline, the company he works for (again, a major bank so fees might be a little high) start at $1,000 and then you would have to add in the title fees.

Hoping you can find a lender to swing it though!