Start there, not with the loan. Do you want to walk to coffee, or do you want a garage and a quiet street? Are you driving to an office every morning, or working from the spare room and living on the internet connection? Dogs, kids, a garden, a spot for the skis and the bikes? Those answers pick the neighborhood, and the neighborhood picks the price, and the price picks the loan. Most first-time buyers do it backwards and let a bank's number pick all three.
You don't need twenty percent down; that's the myth that keeps renters renting. You don't need perfect credit. You need a plan: a payment you can live with, a loan that fits how your income arrives, and someone who can turn both into an offer a seller takes. That's what we build on the first call, and it's a lot more fun than an approval letter.
Four things to do before you write an offer:
Walk it on a weekday night.
Not a showing. Park, get out, walk the block after work. Are people out? Is it loud? Does it feel like somewhere you'd want to come home to on a Tuesday?
Walk it again on a weekend morning.
Same block, different life. Coffee shop lines, kids on bikes, the neighbor's project car. If you like it both times, you'll like it in February.
Drive the commute at the real hour.
If you're going to an office, do the drive at the time you'd actually do it. If you work from home, sit in the house with your laptop and check the signal and the light.
Run the payment before you fall for it.
The calculator below. If the month doesn't work, the kitchen doesn't matter. If it does, now you can fall for the kitchen.
Because an approval letter is a ceiling, not a budget. A bank tells you the most it will lend, and most first-time buyers take that number to a showing and spend it. A year later the house owns them: no savings, one furnace away from trouble, and a payment that was never the point.
The plan starts at the other end. What do you want your month to look like, with the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and the rest in it? That's your number. Then we find the loan that gets there, and the house that fits it. When the offer goes in, it's built on a number you chose.
Before we run it, I'll ask:
What's the payment that lets you sleep, not the one you could technically make?
What does a good Saturday look like in the house, and which neighborhoods have that?
Where's the down payment coming from, and is your income a W-2 or your own business?
The approval letter tells you what a bank will do. The plan tells you what you should do. First-time buyers who confuse the two end up house-poor in a house they loved for a month.
— Bobby Friel · CO Home Equity
If you walked into the showing already knowing your number, and the loan behind it was already placed, what would you stop worrying about?
| FHA | VA | Conventional, low down | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Down payment | Small | None | Small |
| Credit | Forgiving | Forgiving | Stronger |
| Mortgage insurance | Up front and monthly | A funding fee instead | Monthly, drops off later |
| Who it's for | Thin down payment or credit file | Anyone who's served | Good credit, small savings |
| Self-employed | Yes, with returns | Yes, with returns | Yes, with returns |
| No tax returns | See bank statement loans | See bank statement loans | See bank statement loans |
If you've served, VA first. If you haven't and the credit is strong, conventional low-down usually wins on the monthly. If the credit or the down payment is thin, FHA is the option. Self-employed with a return that looks small: bank statement loan, and it's on its own page.
Price, down, rate, term, taxes, insurance, HOA. Put in the payment you want to live with and work backward to the price, not the other way around.
Monthly payment, fully loaded · 30-yr fixed
$4,343 / mo
Working range $4,100–$4,600
PMI
Under 20% down means PMI — and it's not the penalty people think. It's what lets you buy the home you want now instead of the one that's left after two years of saving. Your number depends on credit score, property type, and term — and we shop it. We'll price it together.
This is an estimate on the numbers you entered. FHA and VA carry their own insurance or fee, and the real figure comes from an underwritten file. The plan comes from the conversation.
Want to build the plan around this number?You've got some savings or a gift lined up, even if it's far short of twenty percent.
Your income is steady, W-2 or self-employed with a couple of years behind it.
You'd rather pick your payment than be handed a ceiling.
You want one person on the loan and the offer, start to keys.
You want the biggest approval you can get and a house to match. I'm the wrong call for that.
The reserves would be gone the day you sign.
You're buying in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, or anywhere outside the Vail Valley and the Denver Metro, and you need a buyer's agent there. I'll place the loan and work with your local agent; I don't drive to showings that far.
Illustrative, not specific clients
A Thornton couple came in with a bank approval far above what they wanted to spend and no idea how to say no to it. We started with the month they wanted, backed into the price, and placed an FHA loan on a townhome that fit. Their payment landed under what they'd been paying in rent. Keys about five weeks after the offer.
A valley contractor with a healthy business and a tax return built to look small had been told no twice. Bank statement loan, primary home, first-time buyer. The lender reviewed twelve months of deposits and returned his real qualifying income before he shopped. He wrote the offer knowing it would fund.
One desk, both sides. Here's the order.
What you want your month to look like, where the down payment is coming from, and how your income arrives. You leave with an action plan and a loan type.
Through my secure client portal, or by phone. Income, assets, credit, and how the down payment is getting there.
Your number on paper, the loan behind it, and the price range it buys. If two programs are close, both, side by side. We pick together.
You walk the blocks, weekday night and weekend morning. When one feels right and the payment works, I write the offer with the loan already placed and the dates set right. Elsewhere in Colorado, I work with your agent.
Insurance quoted in week one, so nothing waits on it. I've seen what underwriters ask first-time buyers; we answer it before they ask.
Papers, keys, done. Then a review whenever the market moves, because the first loan is rarely the last.
Each path goes straight to the page that answers your question.
Buying your first home should be a great year of your life. I've watched too many people have it ruined by a bank that handed them a big number and let them go spend it. The house was great for a month. Then the furnace went, and there was nothing left, and the thing they'd worked for started feeling like a trap.
I don't write pre-approvals to the ceiling for people who haven't decided what they want their life to cost. We build the plan first: the month you want, the neighborhood that fits it, the loan that gets there, the offer that wins. Then you go walk the blocks with a number that's yours.
Your first home should be the start of something, not the end of your savings. That's the whole job, and it's my favorite part of it.
One conversation about the life you want in the house, what you want the month to look like, and where the down payment's coming from. You leave with a loan type and an action plan, before you fall for anything.
Loan programs and down payment requirements change. Every figure on this page is an estimate until your file is underwritten.
First-time buyer loans and home purchases in Colorado handled by Bobby Friel, licensed mortgage broker and licensed real estate broker, based in Edwards and serving buyers across Colorado. Insurance through our insurance partner. 42 five-star Google reviews. (720) 799-2202 · info@cohomeequity.com.
Bobby Friel · NMLS# 332039 · Friel-Good Mortgage, Inc. · NMLS# 1901977 · Edwards, Colorado