Obtaining an affordable mortgage is an art, not a science, especially for first-time buyers, and is just as important as finding an affordable house.

Fortunately, homebuyer education -- learning how to cover your down payment and closing costs, in particular -- can provide real traction toward financing your first home. Moreover, you can save thousands of dollars in lenders’ fees if you mind the wise words of the old Smokey Robinson song “Shop Around.”

Taking a class for a few weeks is an excellent way for first-timers to learn about credit and mortgages. On certain types of loans, homebuyer education is a requirement. And repeat buyers could learn a lot, as well -- especially if they haven’t been in the market for some time.

Marisa Calderon, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, sees a little schooling as useful across the entire spectrum of buyers. “Education is helpful regardless of anyone’s financial situation, especially when it comes to the nuances of managing homeownership,” she says.

The big mortgage agencies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae often require homebuyer education to qualify for specialty loan programs. With Fannie’s HomeReady, designed for low-income borrowers, completing the course gives qualified buyers a shot at financing with just 3% down -- a far cry from the 20% many loans require.

Homebuyer education programs vary, but they have some common traits. They teach students the ins and outs of credit scores, as well as how and when to pay bills, balance a checkbook, save money and live within their means.

Classes also cover how to manage student loans and other debt; the value of nontraditional forms of credit, such as timely rent payments, cellphone bills and utility bills; and overcoming a reluctance to use credit cards to establish and build credit records.

Far from being just for first-timers, counseling benefits homeowners at all stages. For example, seniors looking to access the equity they’ve built in their homes through reverse mortgages are required to visit a counselor by the Federal Housing Administration, which insures the bulk of these loans.

Even proprietary reverses originated by lenders outside the FHA limits come with a counseling requirement; the sessions are usually handled by the same counselors who work on government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. Low-down-payment loans or loans that come with some form of assistance are really where the rubber meets the road. For example, the congressionally chartered nonprofit NeighborWorks America has just unveiled a program for Alaska residents who earn 100% or less of the median income in their areas. It offers a $10,000 forgivable loan for buyers who successfully complete an educational component.

“A knowledgeable borrower is a sustainable borrower,” says Stephen Barbier, the relationship manager at NeighborWorks.

“Homebuyer education and counseling create knowledgeable buyers, who save money through awareness of affordable loan products and down-payment assistance, he said. “(It also helps buyers) understand the rights and responsibilities of homeownership, and ensures they have a trusted adviser to turn to with questions.”

The number of buyers receiving such aid recently doubled, according to Freddie Mac. In a survey by Freddie Mac and Down Payment Resource, which tracks programs available in every state, 5% of respondents reported receiving a loan or assistance from either a nonprofit or a government program in 2013. By 2016, that figure increased to 10%.

There’s quite a bit of help available, if you know where to find it. Of the 2,500 homeownership programs in DPR’s database, 83% had down-payment funds available at last count.

Yet DPR’s Rob Chrane says the availability of assistance is not as well-known as it should be.

“Research and data show there is a wide gap between consumer perception of what it takes to buy a home and what it really takes,” he says. ”Sixty-five percent in a recent survey thought they needed 15% for a down payment. That’s pretty far off the mark.”

Mounzer Aylouche, vice president of homeownership programs at MassHousing, says an assistance program his group has started has “made an indent” in affording the very pricey Boston market.

The agency offers financing with just 3% down to buyers with incomes at or below the median in the Boston area. Moreover, the down payment can be funded by a second mortgage of up to $12,000 at just 1% interest.

The program is so successful, it is being expanded to include “workforce” housing for buyers who earn more than 100% of Boston’s annual median income. In this case, a 2% loan of up to $15,000 will help offset participants’ closing costs.

Another way to cut your upfront costs is to bargain with your lender about its fees. Closing costs can be daunting, but they don’t have to leave you with nothing in the bank. You can save thousands by shopping around.

Mortgage platform LendingTree reports that buyers can be saddled with as many as 16 different fees during the mortgage process. In last year’s first quarter, these charges added up to a median of $2,059 for buyers and $1,807 for owners who were refinancing.

But by shopping lenders -- or by using some good old-fashioned jawboning -- some borrowers got away with paying nothing at all in fees, once again showing the value of learning about mortgages before taking the leap into homeownership.

-- Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this report.

Only your lender can tell you how much you can spend on a house. But you don’t have to spend that much, and probably shouldn’t. You need some wiggle room -- especially if you’re a first-time buyer.

Broker Steve Godzyk in Manchester, New Hampshire, recently had a client who didn’t heed that warning, and she’s likely to be sorry. A single mother of two, she told Godzyk that after paying the house note, she’s left with no money to have fun or go anywhere with the kids.

During the house-hunt, she’d insisted on searching at the top price her lender said she qualified for. When Godzyk asked why she wouldn’t buy in a lower price range so she would have money left over after paying her mortgage, she replied, “The loan officer said I can buy a home at that price, and I will.”

Being “house poor” is no fun, and it doesn’t take long for a dream house to become a nightmare. And Godzyk’s client appears to be far from alone in shooting for the moon.

A new report from mortgage analytics firm Black Knight found that 1% of all loans taken out in last year’s first quarter were delinquent within six months. Sure, 1% doesn’t sound like a lot in the greater scheme of things, but that’s the most since 2010 -- and an increase of more than 60% over the past two years.

Here’s more proof some buyers are biting off more than they can chew: In another recent study, Clever Real Estate, a site that matches buyers with agents, found that 35% of mortgage complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018 were from people who were struggling to pay their mortgages, suggesting they were overextended.

It’s even happening in the rental sector, according to Zumper, a leasing platform, which says a third of all millennials spend more than 30% of their incomes -- the standard measure of affordability -- on rent.

Lenders base their decisions about the maximum they will lend on several factors. Credit scores are key, but they also give heavy credence to your debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, which is calculated by dividing your total monthly debt expenses -- like vehicle, credit card and student loan payments -- by your gross monthly income.

Generally, lenders won’t approve mortgages for people who spend more than 43% of their income on recurring monthly payments. But that cutoff “is hardly a steadfast rule,” says Clever Real Estate research analyst Francesca Ortegren, who found that 15% of the loans written in 2018 were to borrowers above that ceiling.

Indeed, Middletown, Connecticut, mortgage broker George Souto says some conventional lenders will go up to 50%, while those pushing government-backed FHA financing will go as high as 55%.

Don’t go that high, though. Why? If you add the cost of your new mortgage to your monthly debt load, it leaves little or nothing for utilities, maintenance, food, gas, clothing, school supplies and all those other things you spend money on, month in and month out -- items your lender doesn’t pay any attention to when calculating your DTI.

“This is an insane way to go into homeownership,” Lise Howe of Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, D.C., warned recently on the ActiveRain real estate site. “A lender may approve you for a mortgage at a high amount, but it might not make good financial sense to borrow all that money.”

To avoid debt overload, start by picking your realty agent carefully. Your lender, too. You want to deal with professionals who have your best interests at heart, not their own.

“There are agents who will test your discipline,” says Barbara Todaro of RE/MAX Executive Realty in Franklin, Massachusetts. “If your pre-approval reflects a large number, they’ll start their showings with that luxury home, and everything else will look like a fix-and-flip.”

New Lenox, Illinois, mortgage broker Gene Mundt agrees. “A good lender fulfills a larger role than someone who facilitates a mortgage,” he advises.

Another good step is to prepare two budgets: one so you know exactly what you are spending now, and the other so you’ll know what you will be paying once you buy a house. That way, you won’t be giving your lender the power to determine how much you can spend on your house.

Some items will shift, of course. If you are paying renter’s insurance now, for example, you can forget that number -- but make sure you include an amount for homeowner’s coverage in the second budget. It’s required, as is mortgage insurance. Some of these costs can be included as part of your monthly house payment, but they add substantially to an amount above and beyond principal and interest.

Make sure you include everything, from your cable and internet bills to your cellphone. And allow amounts for food, entertainment, transportation and whatever else you can think of. Later, if you decide to lower some of these expenses or dump them entirely, you can. But at least you’ll know going in what you have going out.

Making these lists will take some time, but it’s well worth it. Budgeting allows borrowers to determine their own fates, advises Ortegren. It’s “a simple way to avoid overspending,” she says.

The nonprofit Consumer Federation of America has once again come down hard on real estate disclosure laws. This time, the group is calling on states to rewrite disclosure laws so they are more understandable, and to give them to buyers and sellers upon their first contact with realty agents.

In its latest report, the CFA says many buyers do not comprehend the written disclosure statements they receive from their agents -- if they receive one at all, or bother to read it.

For one thing, said CFA Senior Fellow (and former executive director) Stephen Brobeck, not knowing whether the agent represents your interests or those of the seller can be costly, because he or she could pass on information you disclosed that would diminish your bargaining power. And for another, an agent, in the interest of making a quick sale, may not show you houses that may be better choices.

“An agent working for the other party could, and may be legally required to, pass on compromising information such as the purchase price you’re prepared to sell for or spend,” he said. “And this agent would have no obligation to find the right buyer or the right house at the right price.”

This isn’t the first time Brobeck and the CFA have taken on the real estate sector. Back in the 1990s, they challenged the use of subagency, in which all other agents were the subagent of the listing agent. That meant that the agent who drove prospects around from house to house was legally bound to pass along information that was disclosed to him, sometimes without telling the buyer.

The use of subagency was subsequently abandoned, and every state set about writing its own disclosure laws. Some were written by lawyers, some by real estate professionals, but rarely did any include consumer input, said Brobeck.

Nowadays, disclosures are required in all 50 states. But many forms are so long, so full of legalese and so poorly presented that consumers will not read them. Beyond that, terminology differs wildly: The CFA found that, collectively, states use more than 50 different terms to identify the roles agents can play in a transaction.

For example, a dual agent -- one who works for both the buyer and the seller, but has no fiduciary duty to either -- might be known as a “limited consensual dual agent,” “dual representative,” “limited dual agent without assigned agency,” “standard dual representative,” “standard dual agent,” “dual-agency broker representing seller and buyer,” “broker representing both seller and buyer” or “multiple representative.” It all depends where the agent practices the always-questionable art of working both sides of the fence.

“Very rarely do two states have the same agent roles and the same terms to identify those roles,” reads the CFA’s 27-page report says, calling the mishmash of terms “especially challenging.”

Brobeck singled out Washington’s disclosure form/pamphlet as the least consumer-friendly. But he added that many other states’ disclosures are so long, legal, poorly formatted and in such small type that they are unlikely to be read. On the flip side, he credited Vermont, New Hampshire and South Dakota with doing “a good job” with their disclosure laws.

Stressing that “no state is perfect,” the nonprofit advises them all to go back to the drawing board. Otherwise, consumers are left to rely on the guidance of agents who don’t owe them any allegiance.

According to the report, 14 states fail to clearly identify whom the agent represents. In eight of those, the disclosure forms were written by the state; the other six use industry-written forms.

The timing of agency disclosures also leaves much to be desired. Now that many buyers are combing the internet and calling listing agents directly when they see a house they like, timing has become more relevant than ever, Brobeck said during a telephone press conference. “Many people don’t fully understand that the agent (they speak with initially) may not represent them.”

Yet, only 16 states require agents to reveal whom they represent upon first contact. Several others mandate disclosure upon the first meeting, which isn’t soon enough to satisfy Brobeck. Some states allow agents to wait until a service agreement of some kind is signed, and eight allow them to hold off until just before a contract is inked -- which, as the report says, is “much too late in the process.”

With the amount of money involved in today’s typical real estate transaction, Brobeck says both buyers and sellers “really need an agent who represents their interests and their interests alone.”

Toward that end, the CFA is urging every state to rethink its disclosure laws and require they be in writing; in short, concise language; in a user-friendly format; and written by the state, not the industry. Furthermore, the disclosure should include the agent’s name, contact information and date.