Home Base
Home Base with Marc Emrich
Buying your first home in Colorado is one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make — and most people start with more questions than answers. Home Base is here to change that.
Each week, mortgage broker Marc Emrich of Pivot Lending Group sits down to answer the real questions first-time buyers are asking: How much do I need for a down payment? What does my credit score actually mean for my loan options? What is a forgivable loan — and how is it different from a grant? What happens at closing?
No jargon. No pressure. Just clear, honest answers from a Colorado mortgage professional who helps buyers navigate the path to homeownership every day.
New episodes every week. Subscribe and start your journey home.
Home Base
Colorado First-Time Homebuyer Programs: What You Should Know
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Lauren sits down with Marc Emrich of Pivot Lending Group to talk through the first-time homebuyer assistance programs available in Colorado, including how down payment help and forgivable second mortgages actually work. Marc explains who qualifies — including people who haven't owned a home in the past three years — and why income level, location, and loan type all play a role in finding the right program. Listeners will come away understanding that these programs are real, the initial conversation with a mortgage professional costs nothing, and it's worth asking the question before assuming help isn't available to them. Home Base is a weekly podcast helping first-time homebuyers understand the mortgage process, available assistance programs, and what to expect on the road to ownership. 🌐 Resources in English & Spanish: https://cofirsttimebuyergrants.com/
Welcome to Home Base, the podcast that helps first-time homebuyers understand the road to owning their own home. I'm your host, Lauren, and every week I'm joined by Mark Emric, Senior Loan Originator at Pivot Lending Group. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_02Mark, welcome back. Today we're getting into something that I think a lot of Colorado buyers have heard about, but maybe don't fully understand, first-time homebuyer assistance programs. What they actually are, who can use them, and how they work in the real world. So let's just start at the beginning. When people hear homebuyer assistance programs in Colorado, what are we actually talking about?
SPEAKER_00Great place to start. At the most basic level, these are programs designed to help reduce the upfront cost of buying a home, and that's really the biggest barrier for most first-time buyers. The most common types are down payment assistance, closing cost assistance, and sometimes funding that looks more like a grant, meaning it may not need to be paid back. They vary quite a bit depending on where you are in the state and what your situation looks like.
SPEAKER_02Wait, so some of this money you don't have to pay back at all?
SPEAKER_00That's right, and I want to be careful here because it really does depend on the specific program. Some are structured as true grants. As long as you meet the program terms, there is no repayment required. Others are set up as what's called a second mortgage, which may be forgiven over time. So the short answer is some yes, some it's more of a gradual forgiveness. Your mortgage professional will always walk you through exactly how a given program is structured before you commit to anything.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I want to make sure I understand that second mortgage piece, because that sounds like it could mean more debt.
SPEAKER_00It's a fair concern and it's worth explaining. A second mortgage in this context is a separate loan that sits behind your primary home loan. But in many assistance programs, that second mortgage is designed to be forgiven, meaning it goes away after you've lived in the home for a certain period of time. It's not the same as taking on an extra payment in most cases. The key is understanding the terms, which is exactly what a good mortgage professional will lay out for you up front.
SPEAKER_02That actually makes a lot more sense. Now, who qualifies for these programs? Is it really only first-time buyers?
SPEAKER_00Not necessarily, and this surprises a lot of people. Many programs define first-time buyer as someone who hasn't owned a home in the past three years. So if you owned a home five or six years ago and have been renting since, you could still qualify under that definition. Beyond that, eligibility usually comes down to things like your household income relative to the area median income, the purchase price of the home, and your credit profile. There's actually a pretty broad range of income levels served by these programs. It's not only for buyers at the very low end.
SPEAKER_02You mentioned area median income. What does that mean exactly?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Area median income or AMI is basically the midpoint income for households in a given area. It's calculated regionally, so it shifts depending on where in Colorado you're buying. Programs often set eligibility thresholds as a percentage of that number. Like you may qualify if your household income is at or below a certain percentage of the AMI for your county. It sounds technical, but in practice, your mortgage professional just runs your numbers and tells you where you fall.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that makes it feel a lot less intimidating. Can these programs be layered on top of something like an FHA loan?
SPEAKER_00In many cases, yes. A lot of assistance programs are specifically built to work alongside FHA loans and other common financing types. That's actually by design, FHA loans already allow for a lower down payment, and assistance programs can help cover that down payment or the closing costs on top of it. That said, compatibility does depend on the specific program and the lender. So it's not automatic. You'd want to confirm that pairing with your mortgage professional.
SPEAKER_02So it really sounds like the details vary a lot by county, by program, by your personal situation. How does a buyer even figure out where to start?
SPEAKER_00The honest answer is you start by talking to a licensed Colorado mortgage professional who knows these programs. There's no cost to that conversation, and you're not obligated to apply for anything. What you get out of it is a clear picture of which programs you may qualify for and how they'd work alongside your financing. The earlier you have that conversation, the more runway you have to prepare, and preparation really does make a difference in how smooth the process goes.
SPEAKER_02I love that it's a no-pressure starting point. Is there anything a buyer should have ready before that first conversation?
SPEAKER_00It helps to have a general sense of your income, any major debts you're carrying, and a ballpark idea of the purchase price range you're thinking about. You don't need everything perfectly organized. That's part of what the conversation is for. But walking in with even a rough picture helps your mortgage professional point you toward the right programs faster and give you a more specific estimate of what assistance might look like for your situation.
SPEAKER_02Mark, if someone's listening to this on their commute and they're going to remember one thing from today, what should it be?
SPEAKER_00Don't assume you don't qualify. Whether it's your income, your credit, or the fact that you've owned before, there's more flexibility in these programs than most buyers expect. The only way to know what's available to you is to ask, and that conversation costs you nothing.
SPEAKER_02Mark, thank you. This was such a helpful breakdown, and I think it's going to open a lot of doors for buyers who didn't even know these options existed. We'll see you next week on Home Base.
SPEAKER_01That's it for this week's Home Base. If you want to learn more about home buyer programs and resources, visit cofirsttime buyergrants.com. You'll find everything in English and Spanish. We're back next week. Thanks for listening.