Possible to buy house w/ bad & no credit?

my husband has a decent job with decent pay and we would like to buy our first home. the thing is, he had bad credit - paid it all, now he has no credit. i have bad credit, still a bit of unpaid debt which i got before we were married. now, how does this work? i see people w/ worse credit getting homes but i feel like the door is shut. we live in texas. what kind of programs should we look for? can someone explain FHA for me? what would a loan officer or whatever they're called do for us? we agreed that it won't matter if we pay more in the end, as long as we finally get our own home but we are both very young and have no clue where to start. i feel like we'll be laughed at because we'd have little to no money down, we could pull our 401ks but that's only if it's absolutely necessary to get into a house. we've rented apts for 5 yrs and have never missed a rentpayment. can someone here take the time and explain a couple of the first steps we would need to take? i'd really appreciate it!Possible to buy house w/ bad %26amp; no credit?
you need to look for the lenders that specifically say we specialize in first time home buyers with bad credit or no credit..(there's usually ads on tv or on the computeror classifieds) I did that and I got approved and the house was decent looking, I just couldn't afford the house payment (it was like $650 a month for a 70,000 dollar house) my credit score is in the low 500's..Possible to buy house w/ bad %26amp; no credit?
Although you have paid all the bad credit unless you received a pay to delete in writing it remains on your report for 7 years. First get a copy of your credit report and see where you stand. Then check into FHA you might only need 5% down plus closing costs for that see a realtor and find out what you can afford, which is also dependent upon not only your credit report but your debt to income ratio Next here is a site that may be able to help you with the down

http://www.ameridream.org/

Good luck to you
i live in the uk so im not sure if the same rules apply. i was in the same boat as you but for a slightly different reason. firstly get a credit report from all major credit companys most bad debt can be written off, or settled for a fraction of the amount owed after certain period of time. my advice is to try and settle as many as you can, most debt collection agencys will take any reasonable offer and before settling have an arrangement in writing to have the default removed or classed as settled. this will give you a better chance of getting a mortgage with a lower rate, and from a more reputable lender. people with defaults can still get mortgages but the interest rates are very high and not worth the repayments just to get on the property ladder. in the uk defaults can only be kept on record for a maximum of 6 years and then it has to be removed even if it has not been settled, the rules may be the same in your country, if your default is close to the time it may be worth waiting it out and the creating a good rating from scratch.

good luck