I would like to start the process of buying my first home...

[DeusExMachina]

I don't know what the threshold is, but you need to have some amount of credit in your "pool". A few credit cards that total up to some largeish amount of money.

When your credit score is updated once a month, your balance on those cards is divided by your total pool. So if you have $100 on one card out of $10,000 available across all your cards, you're at 1% utilization.

For every percentage point of unused credit, that's 1 point on your credit score.

If you have NO credit cards currently, you'll want a few (spread out your applications) and use them sparingly. It's good practice to pay it off every month, because you will still have a balance shown (you pay last month's balance, then use the card on your bill due date, that new charge will be on your reported balance when they report on your due date).

[sniper7]

I have a realtor for you when you are ready. I would buy sooner than later. Rates are going up and houses are literally only lasting a week on the market. My buddy just signed the contract on one and they had 3 offers on it in the first day.

[BigNick73]

Ask around and find a good mortgage broker. There's a lot of different types of loans out there and they will be able to explain it and help you figure out which one is best suited to your situation. I can tell you that your score will matter a lot less than your debt to income ratio. When I did mine it was all they cared about, think my score was around 720 at the time and had no problems getting financed back in 2010. Also be sure and figure out insurance and property taxes for the property, before making an offer, as that can make up a large portion of the monthly payment.

Ohh and since you'll be married have plenty of money left for paint, fencing, landscaping, light fixtures etc.. as that's huge expense the first year.

[Teufelhund]

One other thing I learned when shopping for our first house. There are different types of realtors: brokers and agents. You want to find an agent instead of a broker. An agent will act more like a guide in helping you find the right home, while the broker just deals in volume and wants to get you into the highest priced house you can afford, as quickly as possible, collect their commission and move on to the next deal. We used a broker, not knowing the difference, got stressed out and sick of begging him to take us to look at houses, and just settled on something that we were not necessarily excited about. I think it could have been a much better experience with a real estate agent.