I know that if a lender uses average credit card balance to calculate debt-to-income ratio, I don't meet the 40% number. I pay the cards off every month, but my average credit card balance is high since I charge everything. If they use minimum required payment, I should be fine.

It depends on the lender. The guideline at my best priced wholesale source is that 5% of the balance at the time the credit is pulled will be used to calculate DTI. This lender doesn't allow paying off of revolving accounts to qualify unless the application includes a letter from the creditor stating that the account is closed to further purchases. Therefore, if you wanted to use this best priced lender, you'd have to pay cash for a while until your credit report shows all revolving accounts with a zero balance.

At other lenders, you can show that you have a practice of paying all accounts to zero every month, such as copies statements for six months. Then 5% of the balance would not be counted as an ongoing monthly liability.