Partnerships and credit

[Matt Hanson]

My business partner and I are considering investing in a MFH. This is our first purchase as a partnership and neither of us own our own homes. As a result, our credit scores are good (we both have an excellent history of paying our bills on time) but not great (due to a lack of installment accounts and insufficient mortgage information.) Both of us have good income streams from our jobs, but cannot afford to buy homes near our jobs in San Francisco.

If we purchase a MFH as a partnership, will banks require more than 20% down due to our lack of home-buying experience? And if we do buy the property, will our individual credit scores benefit from the on-time mortgage payments on the property?

I looked for the answer to this question in the forums, but could not find one that fully answered it. If anyone has a link to such a forum post, please comment with the link. Thanks in advance!