Buying a home, without the guesswork.

Conventional loans start at 3% down. FHA at 3.5%. VA and USDA require nothing down for eligible buyers. Twenty percent only matters because it lets you skip mortgage insurance on a conventional loan — it's not the price of admission.

Your income and how steady it is, your existing debts, your credit, and your available cash. That's it. Paying down one credit card can sometimes move your number more than a raise would.

Pre-approval means a lender has actually verified your credit, income, and assets — not just estimated based on what you said. It's free, takes about a day, and obligates you to nothing. In a competitive market, offers without one usually don't get read.

Every state I work in runs down payment assistance, reduced mortgage insurance, or below-market rate programs. And "first-time buyer" usually just means you haven't owned in three years — so if you owned a place in your twenties, you may qualify again.

We talk, you get pre-approved, you shop, you go under contract, you close. Most of my purchase loans close in around 20 days from application, which is faster than average because your file isn't sitting in a queue behind three hundred others.