Best way to handle this situation? (mortgage/poor credit)
Current situation: my significant other and I are in the process of looking at purchasing a house together (which would be the first home for either of us) and we're faced with an issue where her credit is great and mine is bad. Not sure of her exact score, but mine is sub-600.
I poorly mismanaged my credit at a young age and have one reported instance of an account going to collections on my credit report. My debt never exceeded $3000 - which I understand is likely irrelevant - but has been paid off in full for just over a year now. While my credit is poor, neither of us currently have any outstanding debt whatsoever and I recently acquired a Capital One secured CC with the intention of using it for minor purchases in order to rebuild credit.
My annual income is roughly $50000 and hers is roughly $55000 and both of us have considerable employment history, as well as the capability of acquiring letters from employers to verify that, etc etc.
My question is this - what is the best way to go about applying for a mortgage? I've been reading online and I'm a bit overwhelmed with my information out there, but I understand that in certain situations, it may be possible for us to go about it in a way that allows her to be a primary applicant on the mortgage, which allows banks to pull only her history but still allow my income to factor into our borrowing potential? That may be misinformation though.
If it matters, we are both in a position with our personal savings / RRSPs to be able to contribute enough to make at least 20% down payment.
I poorly mismanaged my credit at a young age and have one reported instance of an account going to collections on my credit report. My debt never exceeded $3000 - which I understand is likely irrelevant - but has been paid off in full for just over a year now. While my credit is poor, neither of us currently have any outstanding debt whatsoever and I recently acquired a Capital One secured CC with the intention of using it for minor purchases in order to rebuild credit.
My annual income is roughly $50000 and hers is roughly $55000 and both of us have considerable employment history, as well as the capability of acquiring letters from employers to verify that, etc etc.
My question is this - what is the best way to go about applying for a mortgage? I've been reading online and I'm a bit overwhelmed with my information out there, but I understand that in certain situations, it may be possible for us to go about it in a way that allows her to be a primary applicant on the mortgage, which allows banks to pull only her history but still allow my income to factor into our borrowing potential? That may be misinformation though.
If it matters, we are both in a position with our personal savings / RRSPs to be able to contribute enough to make at least 20% down payment.