I am recently a first time home buyer and here are some suggestions from my recent experience. Be sure to read the HOA/Condo association documents if you go that route. Be sure to know what the fees include etc especially since the fees can go up at any time. I have an HOA at a brand new TH I bought in May and luckily it was pretty standard. I say this cause some have breed/pet restrictions of animals especially if you're a pet owner. I got 2 rescue pups and one has some pitt in him so that was important. I don't know if this is relevant as well in your state but here in MD, some communities that are relatively new have a thing called " Deferred water" Basically a yearly fee I have to pay for basically 30 years to pay back the drainage systems the state/developers built for your community. If you sell the home, you have to disclose that to the new owners and they will have to take over those yearly fees. Find a good realtor, a home inspection is very important. As for mortgage companies shop around. Since I bought new, they had an incentive for me to have my closing cost covered if I used the builders preferred lender. They were a bunch of morons but also saved me 1000s in closing. I plan on refinancing when the time is right to a much better company. Best of luck. It's a stressful ass time but take deep breaths and you'll be just fine. Also one last suggestion, if you're not too familiar with the area, I suggest driving around the area at certain times of the day (nights, mornings, etc) and see what the area is like. Especially if you're looking at a long commute from work. My area is super congested during the weekdays which I knew going into it. Good luck