<prompt> Human: Trying to make this as brief as possible but here are the quick facts: Im quitting my job of over 4 years to relocate for my GFs dream job. Was ready for a change myself and this is an amazing opportunity for her. Moving to new city with no new job lined up so GF will be the primary source of income until we get settled and I can find a new place to work. I have enough in savings for a down payment on a house but right now we are trying to figure out the mortgage process and how to apply for a loan correctly.Questions:1. How do we apply for a mortgage together using my savings and her expected salary? she doesnt start for 6 more weeks but we are getting a letter to use for lenders showing her expected earnings2. What companies do people recommend to use for a mortgage? I started a lendingtree account last night and have already gotten 15 calls. 3. What are the necessary steps to make sure I dont miss in this process?I am sorry if I missed anything or left something out so please ask any questions I can help with.Thank you in advance because I am a little lost and appreciate any advise or wisdom the PF community has!EDIT: We have been together for 5 years and would be moving to a city that I do have familiarity to.Assistant: A few things:1. Dont buy property jointly with a GF. Wait until youre married or one of you put the house under your name only and have the other person pay rent. You can gift her the down payment and then put the mortgage under her name but basically dont expect that money back. I would just wait until you get a stable job and buy a house under your name only.2. If youre going to do it under her name lenders are going to want to see a year or two of established employment experience. As long as this isnt a totally different career track for her, she should be able to show her previous employment and one or two pay stubs from her new job.3. Dont buy a house in a totally new city without getting to know the area first. I would recommend you rent for at least a year in a new area before committing to buying a house.Human: Thank you for your insight and my concern was me only having savings and a good credit score while relying on her projected income and her good credit score. We do know the city well enough to pick out a good place to live. We just didnt like the idea of throwing money away to rent when we are planning on getting married in the near future. What sort of advantages does that have in house buying?  <response>: If you are not married you are putting yourself at a ton of risk. If you divorce someone and you share a large asset like a house, a judge decides the fairest division of assets. If youre not married and you break up youre basically at the other persons mercy to divide things fairly. Paying rent is not throwing money away when youre not in a position to be buying. There are several reasons for you not to be buying right now, most importantly you dont even have a job yet. 