So you have no credit and you want to buy a house. What should you do? You'll occasionally see someone online claiming that you can buy a house with no credit, but the reality is that most of the time, your best bet is to build some credit and then buy a house.

The best way to build credit is to get a couple of low maintenance credit cards, use them occasionally, and pay the bill every month. Don't ever be late on your payments once you get the cards. That's worse than not having the cards to begin with.

Chances are, if you're reading this article, you don't have any credit. Here's a quick step by step crash course on what you should do.

First of all, apply to get a Discover, Visa, or Mastercard. You really need to have at least two accounts, but you really don't need any more than this.

Discover is usually pretty eager to approve people who have no credit. Just apply at their website and see what happens.

Your local bank, where you have your checking and savings account, probably offers Visas or Mastercards. But you want an actual credit card, not a debit card. Debit cards don't show up on your credit report. If your personal bank turns down your request for a credit card, don't worry. You still have options.

Go online and find a place where you can apply for a secured credit card. This kind of card is guaranteed by some money that you deposit into a savings account. Even if you have no credit or bad credit, you can get approved for a secured credit card.

Now that you have a couple of credit cards, you need to put them to use. That's not hard to do. Just buy something with each of them each month, and pay off the balance in full at the end of the month.

Don't make the mistake of buying stuff you don't need with these credit cards. And don't make the mistake of charging each card up to its max and then paying the minimum payment each month. That's a road map to poverty city.

Once you've used your Visa, Discover, or Mastercards responsibly for six to twelve months, you'll have established enough credit to think about buying a house. Your next step is to talk with a real estate agent and/or a mortgage broker to find the details of exactly what kind of mortgage you can qualify for, and what kind of down payment you're going to need.