Young credit score, just moved to USA

[Sean Lauber]

My wife and I have spent the last year or so getting myself a green card and have moved from Canada to upstate NY. We are brand new to this country and have very little credit history but very much want to get started investing in real estate! We hope to purchase a duplex and house hack. Shouldn't be more than about $100k but I'm worried about us being approved for a mortgage given that we're "fresh off the boat". I'd like some opinion on our situation and how we should proceed.

I've been working for about 5 months, my wife for about 3 months in the US. Based on CreditKarma, our scores are 1 year with 720 (my wife) and myself with 2 months at 690. We've recently taken out a loan on a car, and have opened new credit card and bank accounts (both about 2 months ago when I was first able to open an account in the US). We would have to both apply since I believe my income is what will get us the loan (about $75k household income).

Prior this, we have great credit and employment history in Canada, but I'm unsure if any of this matters to a US bank. I plan on calling some Canadian banks that have branches in the US (RBC, TD) and speaking with them but I'm seeing that they may require a higher down payment (75% LTV) and we're only really prepared to put down 5-10%.

What do you think? Should we just focus on aging our credit a bit more? How long would you recommend? Are we more likely to be approved if applying for an FHA loan?