Recently I had the pleasure of assisting my son's best friend from college with purchasing his first home.  I was so excited because we had talked about this when I first met him over 5 years ago.  He planned and prepared, asking questions along the way. There were things that he needed to correct on his credit, stabilize his income, and save for a down payment.  After this was all done, we moved forward with the purchase process.  First, we had to connect him with a loan officer to get pre-approved, then we started to look for a property.  He wanted to be close to his job, so he decided to visit a new home community that one of his frat brothers told him about.  After visitiing the community, he decided that he would move forward with a newly built home.