<prompt> Human: 24 yro making 40k a year here. Currently living in an apartment but I really want purchase a house in within the next few years. But honestly I have no idea even where I would start. There seems like so many terms and complexities to it that I dont understand at the moment. Where do I even start if Im beginning to think about purchasing a house in the near future?Edit: thank you for all the information guys! Im going to sit down this weekend and go through it all  <response>: i just bought my first place recently, so Im no expert... and the entire process felt extremely complicated with a lot of moving parts. but the two things that made the entire process easy or at least easier for me as a first time homebuyer were a great buying agent, and a great loan officer.Assuming that you already have an idea of area and budget, a good buying agent will hold your hand through every step of the way. My buying agent was on top of everything. He visited over 20 homes with me, gave me honest assessments, and was obviously very experienced assessing properties. He regularly sent me new listings that he thought I might be interested in, and the place I bought was actually one of his recommendations. Any time i didnt know what was up, I could text him like ok, where are we at? and he would give me a detailed rundown of everything that was in the works home inspection - check, appraisal - check, earnest money deposited to title company - check, next step were waiting on the seller to respond to the inspection, etc. and anything else I needed to do on my end. But the buying agent deals with only the home stuff, theres also the mortgage stuff, and thats where the loan officer comes into play. similarly to my buying agent, i could always call or email my loan officer asking ok are there any documents that are missing? and she would always be quick to respond. 