Notes on how this actually works.
Four pieces on the parts of US mortgage lending that cost people money because nobody explained them in advance.
The FHA decision almost nobody prices properly
A smaller down payment is not a discount. Below ten percent down, FHA mortgage insurance never comes off, and that is the whole trade.
Read it
USDA eligibility is a map, not a feeling
The most common reason people miss a zero down payment program is that they assumed rural meant remote. It does not. It means inside a boundary.
Non-QM does not mean nobody is checking
It means the loan sits outside a safe harbour written for lenders. The Ability to Repay rule still applies to every single one of them.
The two three day rules at the end of a mortgage
Closing does not happen when everyone is ready. It happens when two federal waiting periods have run, and they are not the same period.