Down payment options for almost every savings level. Credit floors lower than you've heard. More ways to cover cash to close than most people know. I've walked thousands of families from "can I even do this?" to keys in hand over 20 years — and the path is more mechanical than anyone tells you.
Call Rob: Where Do I Stand? → Start My Pre-ApprovalMost lenders steer every first-timer to the one product they like writing. There are four doors — and which one wins depends on your credit, savings, service history, and the property's ZIP code.
The workhorse: forgiving credit, gift funds welcome, seller can pay up to 6% of closing costs. Full FHA breakdown → · Michigan closing costs →
Qualified first-time buyers can put down less than they think, with PMI that cancels on its own once equity builds. Strong-credit buyers often win here. Full conventional breakdown →
Served? The benefit you earned, with no monthly mortgage insurance. Often the strongest option on this list. Use your benefit →
For eligible rural and suburban Michigan ZIPs, income limits apply — more of the state qualifies than you'd guess. Eligibility is a two-minute check.
Family can gift your down payment on FHA and conventional loans for a home you’ll live in, and sellers can pay part of your closing costs. Structured right, that’s often the cheapest cash in the deal — we map it out together.
That's normal — nobody's supposed to know this cold. One conversation, no credit pull, and you'll have your lane and a number.
The conversation. Fifteen minutes on your income, savings, credit, and timeline. No credit pull, no commitment — just your real starting position.
Pre-approval. Documents in, numbers verified, usually done in about a day. Now you're shopping with real buying power — and listing agents can tell.
House hunting. You and your agent hunt; I stay on call for payment math on any address you're serious about. Before you offer, you know the monthly number.
Offer & strategy. Seller concessions, buydowns, escalation math — structured right, your offer competes above its weight. This is where a broker earns it.
Under contract. Appraisal, underwriting, conditions. I communicate weekly — with you and your agent — so nobody wonders what's happening.
Clear to close. Final numbers reviewed together before signing day. You walk in knowing every line. Then: keys.
The big-down-payment myth keeps renters renting for years while prices climb away from them. Waiting years to save for a house that appreciates faster than you can save is arithmetic working against you.
The opposite mistake is just as real: stretching to a payment that owns you. A pre-approval is a ceiling, not a target — and I'll tell you when the comfortable number is below the approved one.
And between pre-approval and closing: no new furniture financing, no new car, no job surprises without a call to me first. Boring advice that saves deals every month.
A bank can only sell you its own menu. Your scenario — your credit tier, your ZIP, your down payment — prices differently across the dozens of wholesale lenders I work with.
First purchases live and die on structure: which program, whose gift, how much seller credit, what buydown. Those are broker questions.
You get one first house. I've done a thousand of them.
The whole path from "can I even do this?" to keys in hand — down payments, credit, what lenders actually look at, and the mistakes that cost Michigan buyers real money. Plain English, no jargon.
Written by Rob McKenney · NMLS #23394 · 20+ years, thousands of families helped
Every other calculator asks you for the home price. This one gives you one — from your income, your monthly debts and what you've saved — using your own township's real millage instead of a national average. No email, no credit pull.
Find my price range →No credit pull to start. No obligation. Just your honest starting position and the path from here to keys. We'll figure it out.
Start My Pre-Approval → Call / Text (810) 819-8686