<human>: OK!  So, Im simultaneously excited and terrified that my girlfriend and I are moving into a new stage of life:  home buying.  I've been doing some reading about the process and what to prepare for when owning a home but need some shoring up with the actual process of financing.  Here is a general breakdown of where we sit financially:

- We hold the exact same position in a growing company and make about $38k/yr.

- She has good credit (800) and carries no debt.  She does not qualify as a first time home buyer (previous marriage).

- I do not have good credit (628) and carry about 40k in student loan debt and 1k in credit card debt.  My loans are current and in repayment.  My credit was recently torched by a federal loan that came due 6 months ago.  In short, it was consolidated **via text message** in 2011 and came due in April 2015.  My phone number and address had changed during that gap.  I would qualify as a first time home buyer.  

My questions really pertain to how to apply for financing.  How does my poor credit effect this process if we were to apply jointly?  Can anyone recommend a strategy to approach this in our situation?  Also, we are confident in our relationship but is there any financial benefit to either marriage or domestic partnership?

Can you condense the text into three sentences or less?
<bot>: my credit blows, 41k in debt, 1st time buyer; hers is great and carries 0 debt, not 1st time buyer.  How do we approach financing?