Minimum down isn't the goal.

Because it's rarely the best outcome. A smaller deposit means a larger loan, more interest across its life, mortgage insurance in most cases, and no equity cushion if prices move against you — which is what leaves people unable to sell or refinance. The deposit isn't the binding constraint; the monthly total and the cash left afterwards are. Sometimes deliberately trading a smaller deposit for a larger reserve is the right call, and sometimes it's the opposite — the calculator shows you which.

No, and it won't pretend to. Those programmes have specific criteria that change, eligibility for some depends on service history or income limits, and only the administering body or a lender can confirm it. The same applies to down payment assistance: those run at state, county and city level, there are hundreds of them, funding runs out and rules vary enormously. What you get instead is where to look — your state housing finance agency and a lender who works with those programmes, rather than a general search that surfaces marketing.

Closing costs, which sit on top of the deposit rather than inside it, and then what's left afterwards. A house has costs from day one — the repair that wasn't worth negotiating, the appliance that fails, the things the previous owner took. Arriving at closing with nothing left is the classic first-time buyer position, and a reserve covering several months of the full payment plus a meaningful repair is what stops a house owning you.

It's among the highest-return hours in the whole process, and most first-time buyers skip it. A difference in rate or fees compounds across decades. Rate shopping within a short window is generally treated as a single inquiry for credit scoring purposes, so the usual worry about damaging your score is largely misplaced — confirm the current position, then get written estimates from three lenders and compare fees and points, not just the rate.

Two things. Moving money: lenders re-check before closing, and new credit, a financed car, a job change or an unexplained deposit routinely kills deals at the final stage — and almost nobody warns first-time buyers about it. And wire fraud, which is a serious and well-documented problem in property transactions: criminals impersonate closing agents by email, so payment instructions arriving that way should always be verified by phone on a number you found independently.