Determined, they met with a loan officer named Sarah, who didn’t laugh when they admitted their "house fund" was mostly loose change. Instead, she opened a folder labeled .

They didn't walk into their home with equity, but they walked in with keys. And as Barnaby did his first celebratory lap in the grass, Alex realized the hardest part wasn't saving the money—it was simply asking which doors were already open.

She asked if either had served. If Alex’s brief stint in the Reserves had met the requirements, they could have used the VA loan—the gold standard of no-money-down buying with no monthly mortgage insurance.

"The 20% rule is a myth for first-timers," Sarah explained. She walked them through three distinct paths:

"If we go with a standard FHA loan," Sarah noted, "you only need 3.5%. But, we can pair that with a local DPA grant ." She showed them a state program that provided a "silent second" loan to cover that 3.5%, which would be forgiven if they stayed in the house for five years.

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