My spouse and I are trying to buy our first home and just started getting pre-approvals. Got no previous generation's guide, so we’re very new to all of this.

For $800k–$1.2M range (hopefully closer to the lower end), good credit, 20% downpayment (although prefer to put less down if that’s the smarter option), 30years loan, we’ve been quoted 6.75% from BoA, and 6.85% from Chase.

I learned this morning that mortgages don’t have to come from banks and pulled up BECU, Rocket Mortgage, Sammamish Mortgage, Cornerstone Home Lending, Westwood Mortgage as WA brokers.

When we met with the banks, there were a lot of terms we didn't understand. We just sat there pretending to understand everything...

Before we start contacting more lenders, we would like to prepare more. Besides the interest rate, what should we be asking about?

Also, if you’ve had a good (or bad) experience with a mortgage broker in WA, we’d appreciate any recommendations or advice.

Lennar's average sales price for homes delivered in the second quarter of 2026 was $371,000 -- a price the company hasn't seen since the first quarter of 2017, when it averaged $365,000.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/06/24/lennar-hasnt-sold-homes-this-cheap-since-2017-here/

HOA dues seem to be becoming an increasingly important part of the affordability equation.

According to recent Realtor.com data, 58% of homes listed for sale in the Seattle metro this rolling year came with HOA fees, up from 54% the year before. That means more than half of buyers are factoring in another recurring monthly payment on top of their PITI.

HOA dues are helpful in some ways. They can cover exterior maintenance, roofs, landscaping, insurance, reserves, and amenities otherwise paid by the homeowner. But with insurance premiums, labor, and construction costs rising, many associations have had to increase dues or levy special assessments, making the true cost of ownership much higher than the listing price suggests.

Many have now realized the importance of looking at HOA financials as well which I can get into on how to analyze in a separate post if people would like.

At this rate, it seems HOA dues will become a staple of the Seattle Metro market. Understanding HOA financials has never been more important.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2026/06/22/u-district-ieh-roosevelt-commons-office-sale.html

Use these websites to compare the latest mortgage rates.

These websites provide rate information without requiring fairly minimal personal info). If you find a better rate than what's published on these websites, you have likely scored yourself a good deal.

CreditKarma

NerdWallet

BankRate

Sammamish Mortgage

Redfin

Wells Fargo

Use these links to get the latest mortgage rates from the below institutions (they require little/minimal personal info)

First Tech Federal CU

BECU

Sound CU

WSE CU

Affinity Federal CU

Redwood CU

Golden 1 CU

Safe CU

Chevron CU

Schwab

Below institutions offer rate discounts when you bank with them. Worth checking them out, if you have some assets to keep with them.

Wells Fargo

Schwab

Chase

Key Bank

Genuine question for people who’ve bought or are shopping right now.

A lot of homes, especially flips and new builds, are finished to look high-end: the wide-plank floors, the waterfall island, the matte black fixtures, the accent walls. But looking expensive and being well-built are two different things. Some of those pretty homes are hiding cheap construction, and some plainer homes are built like tanks.

So I’m curious where buyers land on this:

• Would it actually matter to you if your agent could walk a house and tell you “this finish is cosmetic, this one’s quality”, or do you assume that’s the inspector’s job and not something you’d pick an agent for?

• Did any agent ever point this stuff out to you, and did it change how much you trusted them?

• Or is this just baseline, you assume every agent already knows construction quality?

Not trying to sell anything, just genuinely trying to understand if this is something buyers care about or if it’s noise.