If you’ve decided to buy your first home, congratulations! That decision itself is a big step.
If you’re still on the fence, that’s okay too.
We know buying your first home comes with a lot of emotions—excitement, nervousness, maybe some fear. We want to assure you that those feelings are normal.
We also want to assure you that buying a home is still a significant step toward wealth. And eventually, financial freedom.
While it may seem more elusive now, homeownership is achievable.
And at Quontic, we want it to be available to everyone. People with a unique financial status (immigrants, gig workers, entrepreneurs, artists, and more) deserve a shot at homeownership.
In this blog article, we’ll prepare you for the road ahead, including the state of homeownership in this post-pandemic era, how to get buyer-ready, and how to navigate the mortgage application process.
We’ll even cover common pitfalls, so you can avoid some first-time buyer mistakes.
Ready? Let’s start by taking a look at the current landscape.
The State of Homeownership
While the road to homeownership seems more challenging than ever, you’re not alone in holding onto that dream.
In fact, 82% of Americans say owning a home is still a part of the American dream. Meanwhile, the overall rate of homeownership was 65% in Q2 2025.
In other words, most people still want to own a home.
However, in 2024 first-time homebuyers were only 24% of the market share—the lowest it’s been since they started collecting the data in 1981. In addition, the median first-time buyer age increased to 38 years old in ‘24 (from 35 the previous year).
So what explains these shifts?
“First-time homebuyers have faced a combination of high housing prices and high interest rates, which have restricted the ability of many,” says Jonathan Ernest, an assistant professor of economics (in an article published by Today’s Homeowner). “In addition, rents have remained stubbornly high in many areas, which has made saving up for a down payment more difficult.”
We’re probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, based on your lived experience. The path to homeownership is steeper now, but it’s not insurmountable.
You might feel that your non-traditional or variable income is working against you.
And you’d be right, when it comes to the average mortgage lender. But Quontic’s not the average mortgage lender. We think the old ways of lending are simply…well…old!
Fortunately, we offer non-traditional mortgages (we also offer traditional, if that suits you better).
Now that we’ve studied the terrain, let’s get you ready to cross it.
Preparing for the Home-Buying Journey
It’s time to talk about the essential steps you should take before you set foot in a house showing.
Create a Strong Financial Foundation
You can only build a house on a strong foundation, right? Same goes for buying one! Here’s how you build yours:
- Boost your credit score. We won’t go too in-depth here since we have talked about what you need to do to grow your credit score. But the gist of it is to pay your bills on time and pay off any debt you can. A credit score of 620 or higher is ideal, though you can still qualify for some loans with a lower score.
- Know the costs of buying a home (including hidden costs). In a nutshell, plan for your down payment, closing costs, and moving expenses.
- Start saving. If you’ve decided to buy your first home, you’re probably already doing this. When you get to the point of making an offer, anything you can pay up front helps—so save what you can.
- Set a budget. Be careful, because you may be approved for a higher loan amount than you can afford. That’s why it’s important to understand what mortgage payment—plus up-front costs—you can reasonably handle. Determine your budget and stick to it.
Now that you’ve done these, it’s time to…
Gather Your Documents
Yeah, it’s a pain—but necessary. Spoiler alert: we offer loans that require very little documentation.
But for a traditional mortgage loan, you’ll need documents that verify your income and assets, debits and liabilities, identity, and residency. Fannie Mae offers this handy checklist of all the documents you need.
We understand providing these documents can be overwhelming—sometimes even impossible—for self-employed or gig workers.
That’s why we want to circle back to our Lite Documentation Home Loan, which doesn’t require tax returns or W2s, and even allows a 100% gift for down payment and closing costs. Why not see if you pre-qualify? It only takes a minute (literally)!
Once you have your necessary documents gathered and organized, you’re ready to apply for a mortgage.
Navigating the Mortgage Process
As a first-time homebuyer, we encourage you to see our blog article, Applying for a Mortgage: Where to Start , which gives a good summary of the entire process.
To add to that, here’s a brief overview of common loan options:
- Conventional loans: The most typical loan available from most lenders. It requires you to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) if you’re making a down payment of less than 20%.
- Jumbo loans: As the name implies, they’re designed for more expensive homes (around the $1 million and above mark). These loans tend to be higher risk, so they’re not available with every lender, and usually require a credit score of 700 or above. The down payment tends to be about 10-20%.
- FHA loans: A government-backed loan, these require just a 3.5% down payment with a minimum 580 credit score. Your score can be as low as 500 if you’re able to pay 10% down. FHA loans require private mortgage insurance (PMI).
- VA loans: Also a government-backed loan. These are exclusively for eligible active-duty and veteran military service members and their spouses. One major benefit is that these loans don’t require you to make a down payment.
- USDA loans: The purpose of these is to help lower-income borrowers buy homes in rural areas. You must be within certain income limits, and the home you buy has to be in an eligible area. It’s also a government loan that doesn’t require a down payment.
Dive deeper on loan types (including adjustable-rate and fixed-rate mortgages) in Bankrate’s 5 Types of Mortgage Loans for Homebuyers.
Choose the Right Loan and Lender
There’s a variety of loans and lenders to choose from. Keep in mind you’ll likely work with the same lender for the life of your loan (unless you decide to refinance at some point).
That said, consider Quontic—a CDFI with a mission to help creditworthy borrowers get home loans. We’re pretty friendly, too.
Once you have that mortgage pre-approval from your lender, you’re ready to make a strong offer. Ideally, you’ll offer above the asking price if you can afford it. Just make sure to stick to your budget—and look out for pitfalls like the ones we address below.
Common Pitfalls To Avoid
No journey is without its dangers. We want you to be as prepared as possible for what you may encounter, including:
- Bidding wars: These were more common during the pandemic, but they still happen in some markets. In short, you find yourself competing with others to make the winning bid on a home. Fortunately, there’s an art to making it go your way, and we published a blog article on bidding wars.
- Unexpected costs: We know, it seems like there are so many hidden costs in buying a home. Our best advice is to do your homework on these up front. Then, create an emergency savings account with 3-6 months of living expenses. If that’s too much right now, just work on it as soon as you can. This will be your umbrella should it suddenly rain.
- Appraisal gaps: Sometimes the home is valued lower than the agreed-upon purchase price. For example, the seller accepts your offer of $425,000, but the home is professionally appraised at $400,000. In this case, your mortgage lender may only loan you the amount the home is appraised at.
So then what? Well, you have a few options. You can cover the extra $25,000 in cash (not preferable for most), renegotiate with the seller to sell to you at the appraisal price, or walk away (assuming your contract allows that).
- Credit score: Mortgage lenders are very jumpy about this, which is why we’re mentioning it again. Definitely boost it if you can—but at the very least, maintain it. The quality of your score determines the quality of your loan in many cases. So try to avoid anything that could negatively impact your credit score throughout the homebuying process.
With all of this knowledge, you’re ready to embark.
We’d Love To Guide You on This Journey
You now know what to expect when buying your first home—and you’re ready for the road ahead. We’d be honored to continue with you until you have the keys in hand.
We understand what a critical decision this is, and take great care and pride in helping first-time homebuyers, which has helped earn us high ratings on Bankrate, Google, and Zillow.
We offer a variety of mortgage loans, specializing in non-traditional mortgages with flexible documentation requirements.
Set up a call with one of our friendly Mortgage Specialists now.