How HōMI works
Three pillars, weighed differently — how they combine stays ours. No single pillar decides alone: the three are measured together, never in isolation.
Assess
Answer honest questions across Financial Reality, Emotional Truth, and Perfect Timing. Sliders, not essays.
Verdict
Your answers become a deterministic readiness score — same inputs, same answer, every time. Then hard-stops: conditions that override the math because they are not safe to build on top of.
Build
Not yet is a starting line, not a wall. You get a map: the specific, ordered things to build first.
Inside the three pillars
How the pillars weigh in stays ours. Here is what each pillar looks at and why it matters.
Financial Reality
Can you afford it?Debt-to-income
How much of your gross income already goes to debt. Lower ratios mean more room to absorb a mortgage payment without strain.
Down payment
What you've saved toward the purchase relative to the price. More down means smaller loans, smaller payments, and more equity from day one.
Emergency fund
Months of living expenses set aside beyond the purchase itself. Owning something means owning the surprises that come with it.
Credit and stability
Your credit health and the consistency of your financial history. This shapes the rate you'll actually be offered.
Emotional Truth
Do you really want it?Confidence
How sure you are about this decision, independent of the numbers. Confidence built on evidence differs from confidence built on hope.
Alignment
Whether you and anyone else involved — a partner, a family — are actually pointed the same direction. Misalignment shows up later if it isn't named now.
Pressure
External pressure — a deadline, a listing, a friend's timeline — pushing you toward a decision faster than your own conviction would.
Life stability
How steady the rest of your life is right now: work, health, relationships. Big decisions land differently depending on what else is in motion.
Perfect Timing
Is now the right moment?Horizon
How far out you're planning to move. A longer runway gives the other two pillars time to catch up.
Savings rate
How much of your income you're currently setting aside. This is the clearest signal of whether the trend is moving toward readiness or away from it.
Progress
How close you are to your own goal, not someone else's. Momentum matters as much as the current total.
Red lines that protect you
Some conditions aren’t a matter of degree. When certain red lines are present, the verdict is forced to NOT YET regardless of the numeric score. We don’t publish the exact lines, so the signal can’t be gamed. This is a protection signal, not a punishment.
A debt load with no margin left
When existing obligations leave almost no room to absorb a new payment without strain.
Housing costs that crowd out everything else
The point where one bad month turns into a crisis.
No financial cushion
Owning a home means owning its surprises. You need a buffer first.
Credit lenders already price as high-risk
At that point the interest cost alone can undo the purchase.
The verdict tiers
All three rings align. Your compass becomes a key.
Close. A few specific gaps stand between you and ready — and we name them.
Build First is not failure. It is the map.
Not yet is not no. It is clarity. It is protection.
The Decision Readiness Score is not a credit score. Lenders will still pull a credit report. Their gates are their gates, not a HōMI verdict.