Hello Baltimore Seller,

Like Chad answered, There will be quite a few things to consider:

1. How much you will have left over from the sale of your home to put down on the new one.
2. What monthly mortgage you will qualify for

The latter question will be answered by both your husband credit scores and yours. Chad laid it out nicely. You will either be paying higher interest rate including your credit information or . . .

You will be paying a lower interest rate, but a smaller loan amount using just your husband's credit.

Are you going FHA? Are you getting outside help with closing?

I have an agent who's customer had to go through an angel investor because he was self employed and his tax records showed less income then he actually had due to deductions. He didn't even qualify for a loan even though he could more than afford the home.

Banks DO take into consideration your income when determining how much you qualify for. However they put more weight on your debt to income ratio.

I would get a pre-qualification before you do anything . . . get one with and without your income/credit score included and go from there. Once you have that, you are armed and you can shop around.

For selling your home, your credit would not be an issue.
For buying the new one, if you want to use your income as a qualifier, then your credit must be used.
I have a loan officer who can work with you to create the best case scenerio -- and help you to determine if you should wait (and if so, how long -- could be a short few months) to move up to your next home.
Please let me know if you would like her information, and I would be happy to send it to you.
Please let me know how I may be able to serve you further!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Marney Kirk
Keller Williams Excellence Realty

You have two sides with different aproaches on this deal. To sell your current property your credit score will not be an issue. To buy another property, if you intend to do it under both, yours and your husband names, yes, your score is going to be a big concern. As a norm, all mortgage loan institutions will immediately check your credit score right after you submit your application and, before giving any serious consideration to it. By today standards, if your credit score is bad, most possible thing would be that you are not going to be approved at all.
My advice to you, talk with a loan officer and try to correct your credit problems before you sell your home.

For an accurate answer why not contact any qualified loan officer and know exactly what your budget can handle.

There are probably too many details that are needed to give you an exact answer to your question, but I will try to answer the best that I can. Your current house doesn't really matter when it comes to qualifying for another mortgage other than the amount of equity that you hopefully have in it. For example, if you sell your house and have $50,000 in proceeds to put towards your new house, that will affect the price of the home you can afford versus having $25,000 or some other number.

Regarding using your salary but not your credit history, I don't think that that will be possible. Unfortunately, you have to take the bad with the good sometimes, and this is one of those situations. Your salary may help you to qualify for a larger mortgage, but it would likely be at a higher rate. For example, if you use only your husband's salary, you might qualify for a $500,000 house at a 5.5% rate. If you include your salary, you might qualify for $600,000 at a 7% rate.

I would talk to a reputable lender in your area and see what his/her insight is into your particular situation. Also, you'll want to talk to a good real estate agent to discuss your current home's market value, as that will affect your net proceeds and thus affect what you can afford for your next home. If you don't know of any agents in our area, I would be glad to help you locate one. Good luck in your selling and buying endeavors!