The questions people are slightly embarrassed to ask

Down payment plus roughly 2–4% of the price in closing costs, plus a cushion for moving and the first repair. On a $400,000 house with 5% down that is about $20,000 plus $8,000–$16,000 plus whatever you consider a cushion. If those numbers are frightening, some of them are negotiable and some are not, and we will tell you which is which.

No. Conventional loans go to 3%, FHA to 3.5%, and VA and USDA to zero for those who qualify. What 20% buys is the absence of mortgage insurance. Whether it is worth waiting years to save is arithmetic, and it usually depends on what rent does in the meantime.

Private mortgage insurance protects the lender, not you, and applies on conventional loans below 20% down. It typically runs 0.3%–1.15% of the loan a year. It cancels automatically at 78% loan-to-value and you can usually request removal at 80%. On most FHA loans the equivalent stays for the life of the loan, so plan to refinance out.

A North Carolina thing. You pay it directly to the seller for the right to inspect and investigate, and it is generally non-refundable if you walk away. It is separate from earnest money, which is held in escrow and is normally refundable if you terminate inside the due diligence period.

Often. North Carolina and Wake County both run programmes with income limits and, in some cases, first-time-buyer or purchase-price limits. Eligibility has to be checked before you write an offer, because some programmes need to be in place from the start rather than bolted on later.

When the appraisal comes in below the contract price. The lender will only lend against the appraised value, so the difference is yours to cover in cash, renegotiate, or walk away from. Decide which of the three you would do before you write the offer, not after.

We will tell you what is built there, when, on what size lots, whether there is an HOA, how far it is to where you work, what the sidewalks and parks are, and which schools the district assigns. We will not characterise the people who live there — not because we are being coy, but because doing so is how housing discrimination actually happens, and because our impression of a place is worth nothing next to an hour you spend standing in it.

We do not answer that. School quality ratings function as a demographic proxy, and steering buyers toward or away from areas on that basis is unlawful. What we will do is tell you exactly which schools the district currently assigns to any specific address, and point you at the district’s own data so you can form your own view.

The Wake County Public School System assigns a base school per address, and reassigns periodically as capacity changes. There are also magnet and application programmes outside the base assignment. A base assignment can change between the day you offer and the day you move in, so verify it directly with the district for the specific address.

No — Clayton is in Johnston County. That means a different school district (Johnston County Public Schools) and a different combined property tax rate, which is higher than Wake’s. Both are real differences in your monthly payment and your children’s assignment, and both are in the estimator on every Clayton listing.

That depends on the street and the time of day, and we can only tell you the physical facts: which streets front an arterial road, which sit under the RDU approach path, which back onto a rail line or a school pickup loop. We will walk you through the airport’s published noise contour map when it is relevant. Then go and stand there at 8am and at 6pm.