<prompt> Human: My landlord wants to raise our rent in February. My wife was talking with her father about it and he said we should buy a house instead. We bring home about 3,500 netmonth. We have 0 savings. Our credit is under 600. Buying a house seems impossible. My father-in-law offered to co-sign for us his score is over 800 and to help with the down payment. It was surprising because he has never agreed to co-sign for anyone in his life. I suspect he wants to leave something for the only kid of his who made good choices in her life while his health is getting worse.Questions:-How much of an effect will him signing have?-He suggested buying foreclosed, how does that work? Can we?-My current rent is 1400, and that is not hard for us, would a house be significantly higher mortgage? Prices for homes in my area are around 350,000-450,000-I told my wife we should buy a house we like not necessarily a dream house because with the high market, this will likely be our home until the kids move out. Is that a reasonable expectation?-Where do I start? Who do I need to call to find out more?-My wife is a stay at home mother, but I could get her score much higher much faster than mine. Can she sign for the house without me? Is that legalbeneficial?edit: formattingspellingedit 2: Thank you everyone for your comments. It has been very enlightening. I came into this thinking wow, buying a house would lower my bills. I have been corrected. We will be holding off on buying until we have some more ducks in order.Assistant: How much is he willing to give for a down payment and do you have to pay it back? Buying a home for the min of 350k with nothing down would be 2.4k a monthwith taxes,insurance and pmiso you cant afford it. If you want a payment of 1.4k a month you would need to have a mortgage of 200k or less. So if you want a home for 350k that would mean you would need to have him gift you 150k for a downpaymentand not expect you to pay it back since you cant afford too. Also you would need about 5k-10k for closing cost and would want to have some sort of emergency fundfor maintaining the home, repairs cost a shit ton expect 1 of home value a year so around 300 a month on a 350k home at minimum so is say at least 9k for that saved. Id say your nowhere near ready yet even if he helps unless you somehow find a home under 200k in your area that doesnt need a ton of work.Human: I dont understand how people can buy a house... It baffles me. Who has 150k lying around? I guess I saw this as a If Im going to pay 1600 to rent, I might as well buy a house! It does not seem like that is the care. Either way, thank you for the information.  <response>: Most people dont put anywhere near 150k down. That would be your scenario for you to get to a workable monthly payment. Some people move to a more affordable city, or wait to have kids until they buy a house, or both people work, or they buy a fixer upper, or get help from one of both sets of parents. 