I would start with a certified letter and cc your local Division of Real Estate.

I don't have any CC debt, car loans or any other consumer debt that is not earning me money.

Maybe borrow the remaining down payment with a personal loan, car title loan (a real one, at a bank for 5-9% interest), CC balance transfer check at 0% for 18 months (assuming you have a plan to pay it back), etc.If you wanted to make the house your personal residence, you could put down 5% and pay PMI for a year.  

@Brian C.

,FHA is usually the best option for people with shaky credit, as it only requires 3.5% down + closing costs, which I believe CC can be factored into the loan.

CC,I agree with you on so many things, but not this one.Home owners (with mortgages) can be broken down into two categories:A.

Its plenty safe, but would not be my first choice to live in.Here are the numbers:Potential offer price $70k20% down = $14k + $2k cc= $16kRent: currently rented at $1000/mo but the market should easily support $1,100Vacancy: 8% = $88/ moInsurance: $500/yr = $42/moTaxes: $2850/yr = $238R&M: $88/mo????

You could go out the day after closing and Jack it up to 41 with a car and a cc.  29 is allowable housing cost.  

other companies will not respond which means that they will need to pull from your credit report.i'd then suggest getting some sort of positive credit going. go down to a local bank and get a secured cc. make sure that it will report to all 3 bureaus. if you put up say $500 on the card as collateral, do not go over $250 on it.in about 2 months, go back to the site (annualcreditreport.com) and pull a different report and check to see what has fallen off, what has been settled, etc.rinse and repeat!

I am CC, TX.