{"id":5,"date":"2026-08-31T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.room-vu.com\/ellenzhangrealestate-com\/2026\/08\/31\/top-first-time-homebuyer-tips\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:00:00","slug":"top-first-time-homebuyer-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/31\/top-first-time-homebuyer-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Top First-Time Homebuyer Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-zmyer\">\n<div class=\"video-frame-zmyer\">\n        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\"\n                src=\"https:\/\/www.roomvu.com\/agent\/embed\/ellen-zhang\/first-time-buyer\"\n                frameborder=\"0\"\n                allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"\n                allowfullscreen><br \/>\n        <\/iframe>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"video-description-zmyer\">\n<p>Assess finances, set a budget, include all costs: mortgage, taxes, insurance, closing, maintenance, utilities, and moving.<br \/>\nLenders consider income, debt-to-income ratio (max ~43%), credit score, assets, and down payment for loan approval.<br \/>\nDown payments can be as low as 3.00%; $25,500 on $850K home vs. $170,000 for 20% down.<br \/>\nExplore programs: FHA (3.5% down), VA (0% down), USDA (0% down), H.E.R.O. Loan (0% down, no PMI for CA law enforcement).<br \/>\nCompare mortgage quotes within 30\u201345 days to minimize credit impact; credit unions offer guidance and flexible loan options.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assess finances, set a budget, include all costs: mortgage, taxes, insurance, closing, maintenance, utilities, and moving. Lenders consider income, debt-to-income ratio (max ~43%), credit score, assets, and down payment for loan approval. Down payments can be as low as 3.00%; $25,500 on $850K home vs. $170,000 for 20% down. Explore programs: FHA (3.5% down), VA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":29,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellenzhangrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}