21 July 20266 min
The three-day rules nobody explains
They have different triggers, different purposes and two different definitions of a business day. Only one of them lets you change your mind, and it never applies to a purchase.
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Decorative: sediment settling into layers behind the writing index.
Writing
Five pieces about the parts that are not on the rate sheet.
Each one is filed at the depth of the loan it argues about, because that is where it becomes useful. None of them contains a rate, a statistic we could not source, or a number that is reset every year and would be stale by the time you read it.
- 5pieces
- 4depths covered
- 0rates published
Most recent · 18 August 2026
Points are a bet on how long you stay
The arithmetic takes three lines. The hard part is that the clock stops when the loan ends, and a loan ends when you refinance, not only when you move.
6 minute readFiled at 3–7 yr
Day one
How much do I need, and what am I charged once?
What you hand over
28 April 20265 min
USDA is a map, not a vibe
Two tests run before anything about you is considered. Neither is a judgement, both are published, and one of them counts adults who are not on the loan.
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0–3 yr
What am I paying that will one day stop?
What is still being charged
17 March 20266 min
The year your mortgage insurance stops
Two loans with the same rate are not the same loan. The largest hidden difference between them is a date, and it is a date you can calculate before you sign.
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3–7 yr
What if I do not keep this loan for thirty years?
The window most loans actually end in
18 August 20266 min
Points are a bet on how long you stay
The arithmetic takes three lines. The hard part is that the clock stops when the loan ends, and a loan ends when you refinance, not only when you move.
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7–15 yr
What can I do with the equity I have built?
When the house starts paying you back
9 June 20265 min
What Non-QM actually means
It is the worst-named category in American lending. It describes which side of a line in a regulation a loan sits on, and nothing whatever about the borrower.
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House rules
What this writing will not do
- Quote a rate. Not in a headline, not in an example, not as a range. Every calculator on this site asks you to supply one instead.
- Cite a study it cannot show you. No survey findings, no percentages of borrowers, no statistics of any kind that were not published by the body that made the rule.
- Print a figure that is reset every year. Conforming limits, FHA county limits and the USDA fees change. Where they matter, the mechanism is described and you are sent to the source.
- Pretend to be advice. These are explanations of published rules. Your file is yours, and a licensed lender or a housing counsellor is the person to take it to.