Buying · Hub
Buying a home
The full buyer journey, end to end — from deciding whether to buy through the first year of ownership.
Buying a home in the United States typically takes six to nine months from the first serious search to the day after closing. The decisions stack on each other: how much can be borrowed shapes which homes are reachable, which neighborhood shapes which lender programs apply, which contract clauses are signed shapes what happens if the inspection turns up something material. The articles below are organized in the order most buyers encounter them.
The buyer journey, in order
Seven stages from first thinking about buying to closing day and beyond. Each stage has its own page on the buying hub.
- 01Getting startedDeciding whether to buy, sizing up affordability, and understanding what the next year looks like.
- 02FinancingHow mortgages work, what lenders look at, and how to compare loan products honestly.
- 03SearchingHow to read listings critically and how the market actually moves in any specific area.
- 04Making an offerWhat goes into a contract, how negotiation typically works, and which terms carry the most weight.
- 05Under contractInspections, contingencies, appraisals, and the period when the deal is at most risk of falling apart.
- 06ClosingThe legal mechanics of transferring ownership, the closing disclosure, and the day itself.
- 07AfterThe first year of ownership, the homestead exemption, and the tax basics buyers commonly miss.
Get ready
Useful tools for this journey
- ToolAffordabilityHow much home is comfortable given income, debt, and savings.
- ToolMortgage payment (PITI)Principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA in one number.
- ToolClosing costsA state-aware estimator for the costs at the closing table.
- ToolRent vs. buyThe honest year-by-year comparison with a breakeven year.
- ToolAmortization visualizerStacked-area view of principal vs. interest over the life of a loan.
Start here, cornerstone articles
- How much house you can afford, and why the lender's number isn't the answerA lender's preapproval tells you the most you can borrow on paper. What you can comfortably afford to live with is usually a smaller number, and the gap between the two is where most first-time buyer regret starts.
- Rent vs. buy, the honest comparisonMost rent-vs-buy framing quietly favors buying, by understating ownership costs and assuming the rent-side savings just disappear. The honest version models full ownership cost, the investment alternative on the down payment, and shows the breakeven year explicitly.
- Conventional, FHA, and VA loans, and what each one actually costsThe three main residential mortgage products work very differently underneath. Knowing which costs scale with the loan, which scale with the home, and which roll into the financed balance matters more than the rate quoted on the rate sheet.
- How a mortgage works, in plain termsA mortgage is two contracts, one piece of property, and a long string of mostly-interest payments. Knowing how the pieces fit together makes the rest of the homebuying process much less mystifying.
- Buying your first home, the seven stages and what each one actually involvesA first home purchase is a six-to-twelve-month process, not a single transaction. Knowing the seven stages, which ones move fast and which ones grind, makes the rest of the journey significantly less alarming.