Service history
It is the only qualifying fact on this map that is about who you are rather than what you earn. It opens one line that nothing else can match.
Decides: VA
Every route to a front door.
Eight loan programs on one map. Answer three questions and it narrows to the ones you can actually use.
Three answers narrows eight lines to one or two
Nobody should have to read eight product pages to work out which two apply to them. Answer three questions and the map sorts itself.
Eight lines, at rest. Answer the three questions and they sort into what applies to you, what is worth checking, and what is off route.
- ConventionalSteady income, reasonable credit, buying or refinancing a normal home.
- FHAA smaller down payment, or a credit history with some repair work in it.
- VAVeterans, serving members and some surviving spouses.
- USDABuying in an eligible rural area, on a moderate household income.
- JumboA loan amount above the conforming limit for the county.
- RefinanceYou already own. You want different terms, or you want to change program.
- HELOCYou have equity and you want a line to draw on, not a lump sum.
- Non-QMReal income that a standard W2 file cannot show. Self employed, investors, complex assets.
This is a routing aid built from each program published rules. It is not an eligibility decision, an offer, or a price. Nothing you pick here leaves your browser.
Four facts decide almost everything
Eight programs sounds like eight decisions. It is closer to four, and most people already know the answers.
The down payment
How much you have decides whether you are choosing between programs or being routed by one. It also decides which kind of mortgage insurance you carry, and for how long.
Decides: FHA, Conventional
Where the property is
Two lines are decided by geography alone. USDA by an eligibility boundary drawn on a map, jumbo by a county loan limit. Neither cares what the house looks like.
Decides: USDA, Jumbo
How your income reads on paper
Real income that a W2 file cannot show is a documentation problem, not a credit problem. It has its own route, and that route costs more.
Decides: Non-QM
How a loan actually runs
Seven stops. The federal rules set the rhythm at the end, not us.
A conversation, not an application
What you are trying to do, what you own, roughly what you earn, and whether anything about your file is unusual. Fifteen minutes of this rules out four or five of the eight lines before anyone pulls a credit report.
Pick the line
The router narrows it. A person confirms it, because a program that looks right on paper can fail on the property, the county limit or the documentation, and those are the things a form does not know to ask about.
Credit and documents
Income, assets, identity, and the paper trail behind any large deposit. Self employed files run on two years of returns, or on bank statements if you are taking a Non-QM route.
Underwriters ask for things in waves. That is normal, and it is not a sign anything is wrong.
Pre-approval
A conditional letter based on a verified file. It is stronger than a pre-qualification, which is based on what you said. It is still conditional, and it is not a commitment to lend.
The property
An appraisal, plus whatever the program adds on top. FHA has minimum property standards. VA has Minimum Property Requirements and its own appraisal. USDA has an eligibility boundary that has nothing to do with the building.
Underwriting and conditions
The file goes to an underwriter who tests it against the program rules and comes back with conditions. Clearing them quickly is the single largest thing you control in the whole process.
Disclosure, signing, keys
Federal rules set the rhythm at the end. A Loan Estimate has to reach you within three business days of a completed application, and a Closing Disclosure has to be in your hands at least three business days before you sign.
On a refinance secured by your principal residence there is also a three business day right of rescission after signing, so funds do not move on the day.
The arithmetic, out loud
Change the numbers and watch what moves. Nothing here is a quote, an offer or a rate we hold.
Illustrative figures. What that means.
10.0% of the price
A worked number, not a quote or an offer.
Term
Principal and interest, monthly
$0
Property tax, homeowners insurance, any mortgage insurance and any HOA dues sit on top of this figure. They vary far too much by address for a national number to mean anything.
- Loan amount
- $0
- Loan to value
- 0%
- Total interest over the term
- $0
- Total of payments
- $0
Below 20% down, a conventional loan normally carries private mortgage insurance until you reach 20% equity. It is not in the figure above.
What the routing conversation sounds like
Six situations, written for this demo, each one turning on a single fact that decided the line.
Killeen, TexasIllustrative
Twelve years in, moving off post, no savings earmarked for a down payment.
VA first, because the guarantee removes both the down payment and the monthly mortgage insurance.
The funding fee is the number to look at, and it changes on a second use. It is waived entirely for veterans receiving compensation for a service connected disability.
How do I know which of the eight programs applies to me?
Three facts decide most of it: what you are doing, whether anything about your file is unusual, and where the property is. The router on this page runs those three answers against the published rules of each program and sorts the map. It is a routing aid, not an eligibility decision.
Is FHA always cheaper than conventional if I have a small down payment?
No, and this is the most expensive assumption in American mortgage lending. FHA lets you in at 3.5% down, but below 10% down its annual mortgage insurance premium stays for the life of the loan. Conventional mortgage insurance can be cancelled once you reach 20% equity. Price the ten year cost of both before you choose.
What actually makes a loan jumbo?
One thing only: the loan amount exceeds the conforming limit for the county the property sits in, so it cannot be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The Federal Housing Finance Agency sets that baseline every year and high cost counties get a higher ceiling. The same loan amount can be conforming in one county and jumbo in the next.
Does USDA really mean farmland?
No. Eligibility is decided by the address against the USDA property eligibility map, not by how rural somewhere feels. Plenty of outer suburbs qualify. The second gate is total household income against the county limit, and that one catches more people than the map does.
Does Non-QM mean no checks?
No. Non-QM means the loan does not meet the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau definition of a Qualified Mortgage, which is a safe harbour for the lender. The Ability to Repay rule still applies, so a lender must still make a reasonable, good faith determination that you can repay. Anything sold to you as no checks is not this.
Are the rates on this site real?
No. Every rate, payment, fee and term anywhere on this site is illustrative and exists to make the arithmetic visible. Throughline Home Loans is a fictional company built as a design demonstration. It holds no licences, takes no applications and quotes no prices. See the disclosures page.
Start with the three questions.
It takes under a minute and it will tell you which two of the eight are worth reading about, and which six are not.