Looking to buy a home with someone who did NOT file Ch. 7

[concerned]

I filed Ch. 7 in 11/05 and foreclosed on my home shortly after. I was divorcing my husband and neither of us could afford the home alone; we had no other options. Well, now I have met someone new and we recently became engaged. He wants to buy a home and settle down. We initially were going to have him purchase the home and use exclusively his credit, but I have found that his score is surprisingly not much higher than mine. He has good credit, but very little of it. His scores were high 600's and up to 712. My lowest score was 586, I had one in the low 600's and my highest was 686 (about a month ago). It has not been 2 years since my bk/foreclosure. My questions are:

-Should we try to get approved together?
-Will our interest rate be much higher if we use just his credit/income?
-Are our chances better than if we had both filed?

The final question is more a matter of opinion. I am frankly SCARED to death to buy another home. I'm not sure I'm ready yet. Is this normal to feel this way? I am not drowning in debt for the first time in my life and I'm not in a big hurry to be back in debt ever again. Have others found it hard to make the decision to buy again after going through something like this.

Thanks,
concerned

[emoney]

Buying a home should be a blessing and not a curse. The way you are started I think you can guess what the outcome will be.
Some rules I follow, first do not buy anything with anyone execpt your husband, that included kids. Next save until you have at lest 20% downpayment and FICO scores of at least 700.
Now you are at the starting point for the purchase to be a blessing and not a curse.
regards,
emoney

[chpxiii]

concerned,

I don't have much advice regarding buying a home, but I wanted to say that I can relate to being scared. I have called to see about an early payoff. My boyfriend keeps telling me that if I want to purchase a house, I have to "play the game" of credit and get back in the game by getting another credit card.

I promise you, the thought of getting another credit card TERRIFIES me. I can't even begin to explain the mix of emotions and physical feelings I get when I even just *think* about using a credit card. It's almost mortifying.

So I can completely relate to you being scared about this huge endeaver.

That being said, I wish you much luck and love in your new and happy life.

[dscurlock]

I filed Ch. 7 in 11/05 and foreclosed on my home shortly after. I was divorcing my husband and neither of us could afford the home alone; we had no other options. Well, now I have met someone new and we recently became engaged. He wants to buy a home and settle down. We initially were going to have him purchase the home and use exclusively his credit, but I have found that his score is surprisingly not much higher than mine. He has good credit, but very little of it. His scores were high 600's and up to 712. My lowest score was 586, I had one in the low 600's and my highest was 686 (about a month ago). It has not been 2 years since my bk/foreclosure. My questions are:

-Should we try to get approved together?
-Will our interest rate be much higher if we use just his credit/income?
-Are our chances better than if we had both filed?

The final question is more a matter of opinion. I am frankly SCARED to death to buy another home. I'm not sure I'm ready yet. Is this normal to feel this way? I am not drowning in debt for the first time in my life and I'm not in a big hurry to be back in debt ever again. Have others found it hard to make the decision to buy again after going through something like this.

Thanks,
concerned

You are asking questions only a lender could answer. 2 years ago I bought a house with a credit score just over 600 with only $500 down...today my score is 580 and i cant even get refinacned... getting a home today compared 2 years ago is going to be harder because of the lender scams you been seeing on TV...

If you do get a house, do what i did, wait till the end of the month when homes are trying to meet their quotas, I got a $120k home, when we finished the deal, i got it down to $108.00 with a lot of free perks would either did not come with the home or that would have been extra cost...plus i got them to pay closing costs...

but a lender would tell you what is best, he would not really let you buy if he thought both scores would not get you approved or a good deal...

if you are scared then dont buy...go with your gut instinct, many times your gut is right, besides whats the rush, why is
it so important to buy a home right now with the way the market is?? dont feel pressured...

you always her these statements from lenders, or whoever, Be proud to own your own home, why rent...
what a load of crap...what they dont say is, owning a home is 10 times more reponsibility then renting...
and payments are not always lowered between apartment and home... you have more $$$ to spend
on home insurance, taxes, home repairs, lawn, whatever other problems come up...nothing wrong
with renting and saving all the money that you would spend on home expenses....lenders act as if its
better to own then to rent, overall, you are going to spend more on owning then you would renting,
in most cases (unless you got a super-duper deal on a home)