Unless you have a pile of cash, the money part of buying your first home is arguably the most stressful, most nauseating, most OMG WHAT HAVE WE DONE part of the whole deal. And it doesn’t help that the process is shrouded in mystery.

For most first-time home buyers, the list of must-haves is loooooooooooong, which pretty quickly leads to overwhelm, frustration, and disappointment. Instead of getting overly granular from the get-go, it’s way more helpful to think about this home-buying thing as a stool with three legs: 

Part of what makes the home buying experience so stressful is all the wonky vocabulary. 

Like, what the fork is earnest money? How are you supposed to feel confident financing your dream home when you don’t know the difference between pre-qualified and pre-approved? And what about the “oh $#!+” moment when you start looking over contracts and discover you have no clue what you’re actually agreeing to?

Buying your first home can be stressful for all kinds of reasons.

In this first-time home buyer series, we address all of these concerns (and many more). Today, we’re tackling that last one: What to do and when.