Frequently Asked Questions

Earnest money commonly runs around 1% of the purchase price in the Treasure Valley; buyers in competitive offers often offer more. It is a good-faith deposit that shows the seller you intend to close — deposited within the days your contract names, held by the title company, and credited toward your purchase at closing. Whether it is refundable if you walk away depends on the contingencies written into your offer: terminate inside the inspection period, or under a financing or appraisal contingency you kept, and it comes back to you; default outside those and it is at risk. The amount and the contingencies are decided together, which is why the Offer Strategy Matrix in the Home Buyer's Kit treats them as one decision.

The standard Idaho RE-21 purchase contract defaults to a 5-day inspection period from the date of acceptance, though the exact length is negotiable in your offer. Competitive buyers sometimes shorten it to make their offer more attractive. Buyers purchasing older homes, custom builds, or properties needing specialty inspections (sewer scope, well, septic) often negotiate a longer window. During this window you can inspect the home, request repairs, or terminate the contract with written notice and recover your earnest money. Once the period expires, that protection ends.

Yes, but only inside specific contingency windows written into the Idaho RE-21 contract. The inspection period is the broadest exit — written notice during that window terminates the contract and returns your earnest money. The financing contingency protects you if your loan falls through, and the appraisal contingency covers low appraisals. After these contingencies expire or are waived, terminating becomes substantially harder and your earnest money is at risk. Your MHC agent will walk you through every deadline and flag the dates that matter most in your specific transaction.

Plan for four buckets rather than one figure. The down payment depends on your loan program: conventional programs commonly start at 3% down, FHA at 3.5%, and VA at 0% for eligible buyers. Closing costs typically run 2%–5% of the purchase price for Treasure Valley buyers — smaller homes trend toward the higher percentage, and discount points add to it. Earnest money, commonly around 1% of the price, is paid within days of an accepted offer and credited back at closing. And lenders typically like to see 1–2 months of housing expenses in reserve after closing. The total varies widely by price and program, which is why the kit's Closing-Cost Worksheet builds it line by line and your lender's Loan Estimate replaces the estimate with actual figures.

Buyers pay their own closing costs — lender fees, the appraisal, the lender's title policy, escrow and recording fees, and prepaid taxes, insurance and interest — at signing, on top of the down payment. Closing costs typically run 2%–5% of the purchase price for Treasure Valley buyers — smaller homes trend toward the higher percentage, and discount points add to it. Sellers pay their own side, including their agent compensation and the owner's title policy. A seller can also agree to pay part of the buyer's closing costs as a negotiated concession, which reduces the seller's net and, in a competitive situation, weakens the offer that asks for it. The number to plan around is cash to close: down payment plus closing costs, minus earnest money already paid and any seller credit.

A typical Idaho residential closing takes 30-45 days from offer acceptance to keys in hand. Conventional and FHA loans cluster around 30 days; VA loans often run 35-45 days because of additional appraisal and certification requirements; cash purchases can close in 7-14 days. Major delays usually come from financing problems, low appraisals, or title issues — all of which are predictable and manageable with the right lender and title company. Your MHC agent will track every milestone in the Treasure Valley transaction timeline and flag risks early.

An appraisal gap is the difference between your contracted purchase price and the appraised value when the appraisal comes in below the contract price. In a competitive Treasure Valley market, low appraisals can happen on homes selling above recent comparable sales. Buyers have three options: renegotiate the price with the seller, terminate under the appraisal contingency, or cover the gap in cash. Some buyers strengthen offers by including an appraisal gap clause committing to bring a specific amount of cash if needed. Your MHC agent will help you decide if that's appropriate.

Strong Treasure Valley offers combine three things: a defensible price grounded in recent Ada or Canyon County comparable sales, terms that reduce friction for the seller (clean financing, reasonable timelines, limited contingencies), and credibility — a strong pre-approval letter and an agent the listing side trusts. Overpaying usually happens when buyers stretch on emotion rather than evidence. Your MHC agent will provide a written comparable analysis on every property you're seriously considering, so the offer price has a foundation in actual market data rather than a feeling.

Pre-approval is a lender's written commitment to finance up to a specific amount based on a full review of your income, credit, assets, and employment. It is significantly stronger than pre-qualification, which is an informal estimate. In the Treasure Valley's competitive market, sellers and listing agents typically will not take an offer seriously without a pre-approval letter attached. Pre-approvals are usually valid for 60-90 days. Your MHC agent will connect you with lenders who close on time and produce strong, defensible pre-approval letters that hold weight with listing agents.

Pre-qualification is a casual estimate based on numbers you tell the lender — no documentation review, no commitment. Pre-approval is a written commitment based on verified income, credit, assets, and employment. In the Treasure Valley, listing agents routinely set aside offers backed only by pre-qualification. Some lenders also offer fully underwritten pre-approvals, which go further by having underwriting actually review the file before you write an offer — these letters compete nearly as well as cash in multiple-offer situations. Ask your MHC agent which Treasure Valley lenders provide them.

In Idaho, escrow refers to the period between offer acceptance and closing — typically 30-45 days — during which a neutral third party (the title and escrow company) holds funds, prepares the title work, coordinates documents, and disburses everything at closing. Earnest money sits in escrow. Loan documents flow through escrow. The title company serves as the hub that closes the transaction. Idaho is an escrow state, meaning attorneys are not typically required at closing the way they are in some eastern states. Your MHC agent coordinates directly with the escrow officer.

A contingency is a condition that must be satisfied before the contract becomes binding on the buyer. The Idaho RE-21 includes standard contingencies for inspection, financing, appraisal, and title review. Each contingency has a specific deadline measured from the effective date of the contract. If a contingency is not satisfied — or you provide proper written notice within the window — you can terminate the contract and recover your earnest money. After all contingencies expire or are waived, the contract becomes substantially harder to exit without losing your earnest money deposit.

Title insurance protects you from defects in the property's ownership history — undisclosed liens, forged documents, missed heirs, boundary disputes, and similar issues that could surface years after closing. Idaho transactions typically include two policies: a lender's policy (required if you have a mortgage) and an owner's policy (optional but strongly recommended). It's a one-time premium paid at closing that protects you for as long as you own the home. Given how inexpensive owner's title insurance is relative to a Treasure Valley home purchase, declining it rarely makes financial sense.

An MHC buyer's agent represents your interests exclusively — researching properties, writing the offer, negotiating terms, coordinating inspections, managing contract deadlines, and walking you through every step from search to keys. Buyer agent compensation is negotiated and outlined in the Buyer Representation Agreement. In many transactions the seller agrees to cover the buyer agent's commission. Ask your MHC agent for details specific to your situation. Jerod facilitates My Home Connection's intensive client-psychology and negotiation training program; every current MHC agent has completed it, and the full team retrains annually.

A VA loan lets eligible veterans, active-duty service members, and qualifying surviving spouses purchase a home with zero down payment, no monthly mortgage insurance, and competitive interest rates. Idaho has a substantial military and veteran population, with concentrations near Mountain Home AFB and the Boise VA Medical Center. VA appraisals follow specific minimum property requirements, and the loan benefit can be used multiple times. Properly positioned in a multiple-offer situation, VA offers are competitive with conventional financing in the Treasure Valley. Visit perfectmilitaryconnection.com for the full breakdown.

No. Conventional programs commonly start at 3% down, FHA at 3.5%, and VA at 0% for eligible buyers. Less than 20% down is normal for first-time buyers; PMI is a monthly cost, not a disqualifier. Twenty percent down on a conventional loan avoids private mortgage insurance, and that real fact has hardened into a rule it was never meant to be. A smaller down payment changes the arithmetic — a larger loan, a larger payment, a mortgage-insurance line until your equity reaches the threshold where it can be removed — not your eligibility. The honest comparison is buying now at the down payment you have against waiting the time it takes to reach 20% while paying rent; your lender can run both in minutes.

The inspection period — what the Idaho state forms call the due diligence period — defaults to five days from acceptance on the current forms, and your written response has to reach the seller inside it. Read the report the way a buyer's agent does: health-and-safety items first, then deferred maintenance, then high-cost repair-or-replace items, then cosmetics. For each finding you have four responses — ask the seller to fix it, ask for a credit toward the cost, accept it as-is, or terminate and have your earnest money returned. Buyers who decided their walk-away and fix-or-credit thresholds before writing the offer make those calls quickly; that is what the kit's Inspection-Period Response Worksheet is for. Book the inspector the day your offer is accepted.

Buyer agent compensation is negotiated and outlined in the Buyer Representation Agreement. In many transactions the seller agrees to cover the buyer agent's commission. Ask your MHC agent for details specific to your situation. The Buyer Representation Agreement is the written agreement you sign before touring homes with an agent; it defines what the agent does for you, the term, and how compensation works, including what happens when a seller does not offer to cover it. Read it before you sign, and ask about any term that is unclear — a clear agreement at the start is what makes the representation worth having.

On what you can verify about the homes themselves. Photographs show finishes; a showing shows condition — the roof from the street, grading and gutters, window seals, water stains under sinks and at the crawl-space access, the age labels on the water heater and furnace — and fit: whether the daily path through the layout works, the natural light at the hour you saw it, storage, lot and irrigation, parking, HOA dues and restrictions, and your commute at the time you would actually drive it. Write it down before you leave the driveway; the third home blurs into the fourth by dinner. Keep the comparison to property facts — condition, features, price and location — which is both fair-housing sound and the basis of a decision you will still agree with after closing.

Re-key the exterior locks and reset garage and keypad codes; transfer utilities and update your address; find and label the main water shut-off, electrical panel, gas shut-off and irrigation controller; test smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors. Within the first month, apply for the Idaho Homeowner's Exemption — a property-tax reduction on your primary residence, filed through your county assessor (Ada or Canyon for most Treasure Valley buyers); the county sets the rules and timing, so verify current requirements with the assessor's office. It is one of the most commonly missed items after a purchase. Keep the seller's disclosure, the inspection report and any repair receipts together as your maintenance baseline, and keep your agent's number — questions in the first year are part of the relationship, not a separate service.