[seanmcdirmid]

I went through buying a house a couple of years ago and it was really true. That my credit score got dinged because I paid off my loan early was a real head scratcher, but it was on the credit reports I pulled.

Ya, not having income is a blocker, but you also need to take care of your credit score. I basically had no credit score because I was out of country for 11 years (and..unlike new immigrants, they don't give Americans a benefit of the doubt here), so credit cards and an auto loan was really important when I came back (not having had a car for 11 years made my insurance premium go up, also).