<human>: Give me a shortened version of the text

Ok, a little backstory. I moved from Oklahoma to the middle of nowhere Illinois to fix up a house for my in-laws, after which I am moving to Chicago. In the past I have had pretty shitty credit and have made some bad financial decisions. My credit score is currently in the high 500s, but I'm in the process of paying off my old debt, which totals about $2,000, but it's multiple small accounts from about 5 years ago and older. The only "new" credit I have is my car, which I took a loan to buy in '08 and a recent credit card, neither of which have ever been late.

I have never owned a house before, which I understand used to be a good thing, but now I'm not sure. Rent is high in Chicago and based on most mortgage calculators, if I was able to find a foreclosure or home that needed work, my mortgage would be drastically lower than rent would be in most places inside the city. The problem that I have is that there's so much information on mortgages and it seems to change so often that I'm not sure where to begin even looking into it.

I don't want to apply for a loan or anything just to test the waters as it's my understanding that credit checks to open lines of credit will actually hurt my credit.

I plan on having all of my debt paid off within the next month or so and then re-checking my credit score once I no longer actually owe anyone anything that is in collections, but I'm not sure where to start with seeing what requirements will be needed and what programs I should even begin looking into or whether or not I even have a chance of getting a loan this year. If I don't, I'll just look more into renting in the city and put buying off until my score comes up.

Also, as a final note, I saw a company offering rent-to-own houses in the city and it appears that they offer these for people that are unable to sell their houses due to the market there, and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with rent-to-own when it comes to homes. Thanks in advance.
<bot>: I am paying off old debt, my credit sucks because of that old debt. What options do I have for moving to chicago (buy, rent, rent-to-own)?