First-Time Home Buyer Guide: The Complete Process, Step by Step
A full walkthrough of buying your first home — budgeting, pre-approval, house hunting, offers, inspection, appraisal, and closing — …
Jordan Mercer
Senior Editor, Homebuying · Former NMLS-licensed originator
Jordan spent eleven years as a licensed loan originator before moving into consumer education. She has underwritten or originated more than 900 residential loans and now leads 1PropertyHub's mortgage and homebuying coverage.
MortgagesFirst-time buyersUnderwriting
Articles by Jordan (24)
Buying a Home
Buying a Home
FHA Loans Explained: Requirements, Costs, and When They Make Sense
How FHA loans work, the 3.5% down payment rule, mortgage insurance premiums that never expire, property condition standards, and whe…
Buying a Home
VA Loans: Zero Down, No PMI, and the Funding Fee Nobody Explains
Eligibility, entitlement, the funding fee schedule, VA appraisal quirks, and how to use a VA loan more than once.
Buying a Home
USDA Loans: Zero-Down Financing for Rural and Suburban Buyers
How USDA Section 502 guaranteed loans work, geographic and income eligibility, guarantee fees, and why 'rural' covers more area than…
Buying a Home
Down Payments: How Much You Actually Need and What Each Level Costs
Down payment minimums by loan type, how PMI is priced, whether 20% is worth waiting for, gift funds, and down payment assistance pro…
Buying a Home
Escrow Explained: The Two Meanings and Why Both Matter
Escrow as a neutral third party during the transaction, and escrow as the monthly account your servicer uses for taxes and insurance…
Buying a Home
Closing Costs: A Line-by-Line Breakdown for Buyers and Sellers
What every fee on the Closing Disclosure means, typical ranges, which costs are negotiable, and how seller concessions work.
Buying a Home
Home Inspections: What Inspectors Check, What They Miss, and How to Use the Report
How a general inspection works, which specialty inspections are worth the money, how to read the report, and how to negotiate repair…
Buying a Home
Home Appraisals: How Value Is Determined and What to Do About a Low One
How appraisers develop an opinion of value, what the sales comparison approach actually does, appraisal gaps, and the reconsideratio…
Buying a Home
Credit Scores and Mortgages: What Lenders See and How to Improve It Fast
Which FICO models mortgage lenders use, how the middle score rule works, what moves a score in 30 to 60 days, and how score tiers ch…
Buying a Home
Jumbo Loans: Underwriting, Reserves, and How They Differ From Conforming
What makes a loan jumbo, how underwriting tightens above conforming limits, reserve requirements, and when a piggyback structure bea…
Selling a Home
How to Price Your Home: Comps, Strategy, and the First Two Weeks
How to build a comparative market analysis, why the first fourteen days determine your outcome, pricing bands, and when to cut.
Selling a Home
Home Staging: What Actually Returns More Than It Costs
Which preparation projects pay for themselves, what to skip, room-by-room priorities, and how photography interacts with staging.
Selling a Home
Marketing Your Listing: Distribution, Presentation, and Timing
How listings actually reach buyers, what the MLS syndication chain does, open house reality, and how to sequence your launch.
Selling a Home
Negotiating Offers: Reading Beyond the Price
How to evaluate competing offers, what financing type signals, contingency risk, escalation clauses, and handling repair requests.
Selling a Home
The Seller's Closing Process: From Accepted Offer to Funded
The timeline after acceptance, title clearance, payoff statements, prorations, the settlement statement, and what sellers pay.
Selling a Home
Pre-Listing Repairs: What to Fix Before You List and What to Leave
Which repairs prevent inspection renegotiation, what buyers actually notice, disclosure consequences, and how to budget preparation.
Mortgage Learning
Refinancing: The Break-Even Math and When It Actually Makes Sense
Rate-and-term versus cash-out refinancing, computing true break-even, the term reset trap, and when not to refinance.
Mortgage Learning
HELOC vs Home Equity Loan vs Cash-Out Refinance
Three ways to access home equity compared on rate structure, cost, risk, and tax treatment — and how to choose.
Mortgage Learning
Mortgage Underwriting: What Actually Happens to Your File
Automated versus manual underwriting, the four Cs, conditions and how to clear them fast, and what kills approvals late.
Home Improvement
Renovation ROI: Which Projects Recover Their Cost
Cost-versus-value patterns across common projects, why exterior work outperforms interior, and how to think about renovation before …
Moving
What a Move Actually Costs and How to Budget One
Local versus interstate pricing structures, binding versus non-binding estimates, valuation coverage, and the costs people forget.
Moving
The Eight-Week Moving Checklist
A week-by-week plan from booking movers through the first week in the new home, including the address changes people miss.
Buying
Six Things First-Time Buyers Consistently Get Wrong
The recurring mistakes we see in first purchases, and what to do instead.