<prompt> Human: I make about 50k a year, wife and 1 child. I have about 2000 in savings, but nothing more. Median price of homes in my city are about 101,135. Ive also got terrible credit but about 60 of the negative stuff has fallen off already, another 35 of it should be gone within the next 18 months, then theres a tiny debt that I just need to pay off I havent gotten to yet. I own my car, rent my home currently, and have no active credit lines, but I pay all my bills on time and in full every month. Ive heard I could get a VA home loan and Ive heard both that its easy and that its incredibly strenuous and time consuming. My lease is up at the end of August so Im hoping to make a decision in the next day or two as to whether or not I can buy or if I need to rent again.Im looking at going from a 650month rental home that is in need of serious repairswont be able to live there once it starts basically to somewhere between 800-900 for an apartment with more room. I dont want to live in an apartment, nor do I want to spend MORE on my rent, but theres nothing reasonable in my town.  <response>: Youre at least 2 years from it. Why? Because you have in essence nothing in savings and probably a well below average credit score. Before you buy a house, you really want to focus on having at least a few months worth of an emergency fund if not more as youll become 100 responsible for things that breakdown in a house you own vs one you rent. Im not a believer in buying a house with no downpayment as if something happens and theres a need to move, you wont be able to because you wont have equity in the house to be able to pay realtor fees or closing costs. So ideally her a 10-20K fund so you can pay for a partial downpayment with that VA loan and have some left over for emergencies.Edit: read this post, 