What are the benefits of the VIP program?

Yeah, our Very Important Buyer program, VIB, because it's a very important moment for people.

When they come in, we'll get them pre-approved, but he- also help them find that trusted agent, get them a team of experts working for them to help them find that home.

And going through as a very important buyer, you pay no origination fee, no appraisal fees.

A lot of the other fees are waived heading in.

And like I said, working with that team of experts, but also understanding where rates are.

People are worried, "What if rates go down? Am I gonna have to pay closing costs?" You get the same thing on a refinance.

Down payment, is it still important?

What can shoppers do to gauge what they can afford each month? Because that seems to be really important to know and not exceed.

I think the first thing that people should do is they should look towards their budget, not just identify how much they can qualify for.

identify how much they can afford with housing.

Look at the mortgage payment, take into account taxes, you know, what you would have from a homeowners association, what you would have from insurance, and then put that into a number.

And then after you have that number, that's where you reach out to a lender and then see how you can turn that into a purchase price.

Always tell people, too, make sure you have a little extra left over because when you own a home, there's a lawn.

occasionally things break or you want to do maintenance or you want to do upgrades but if you want to start with your monthly budget and stick to and have a number in there people seem to be really, really more confident heading in.

a lot of very important papers to sign.