Privacy Policy

Overview

This policy explains what information Home Buying Steps, Inc. ("Home Buying Steps," "we," "us," or "our") collects through our website, web application, and mobile application (together, the "Service"), how we use and share it, and the choices you have. It applies to everyone who uses the Service.

Information we collect

We collect information in three ways:

• Account information. When you sign up, our authentication provider, Clerk, collects your name, email address, and authentication credentials, and issues the secure session Home Buying Steps uses to recognize you. We receive your basic profile (name and email) from Clerk; we never see or store your password.
• Information you provide.During onboarding you tell us about your home search — the type of home you want, your stage in the process, your financing preference, and your city and state. As you use the Service, you also generate progress data (which steps you've completed) and any deadlines you create in the deadline tracker. To personalize your affordability and savings guidance, you may also provide financial details about yourself — your gross monthly income, monthly debt payments, monthly living expenses, current savings, current monthly rent, and a self-reported credit-score range (a band such as "720–759," not an exact score or credit report). These details, along with your progress and deadlines, are stored on our servers as part of your account so your roadmap and tools stay in sync across your devices. We call this "Your Content."
• Usage information. Like most software, we collect some technical and usage information — such as device and browser type, pages and features used, and approximate location derived from IP address — to help us understand how the Service is used and to improve it. Product analytics (via PostHog) run only if you accept non-essential cookies, and the financial figures you enter are masked so they are excluded from analytics events and any session recordings.

We do not collect full financial-account numbers, payment-card numbers, government ID numbers, or credit-report data (such as a credit-bureau score or report) through the Service, and we ask that you not submit those to us (for example, in support messages). The financial details you enter are estimates you provide about yourself, used only to power your in-app calculations.

How we use your information

We use the information above to:

• Build and maintain your personalized roadmap, track your progress, and power features like the dashboard, deadline tracker, and reminders;
• Power your affordability, DTI, savings, and rent-vs-buy tools, and pre-fill them across the app so you never enter the same figure twice;
• Match you with relevant entries in our professional directory based on your location and the category you select (using the Google Places API to retrieve listing data for that location and category);
• Operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Service, including understanding aggregate usage trends through PostHog analytics;
• Send you service communications — such as account, security, and re-engagement emails (for example, a nudge if you've been inactive for a while) — through Amazon Simple Email Service (SES); and
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our agreements.

We do not use your home-search answers, financial inputs, or progress data to make decisions about your eligibility for credit, housing, insurance, or employment, and we do not sell your personal information.

How we share information

We share information only as described here — never by selling it to data brokers or advertisers:

• Service providers acting on our behalf, including Clerk (authentication), Google (Places API directory data), Amazon Web Services (hosting, database, and email delivery via SES), Vercel (cookieless, aggregate web analytics — no personal data and no cross-site tracking), PostHog (product analytics), and Sanity (content management for educational content). Each is bound by its own privacy and security commitments and may only use your information to provide services to us.
• Professionals you choose to contact.If you reach out to a professional listed in our directory (for example, by tapping "Call" or visiting their website), that interaction is directly between you and them — Home Buying Steps does not share your account information with directory listings unless you choose to provide it yourself.
• Legal and safety reasons. We may disclose information if required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Home Buying Steps, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers.If Home Buying Steps is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy (or a successor policy you're notified about).

Cookies and similar technologies

We use two kinds of cookies. Essential cookies, set by Clerk, keep you signed in and secure your session — the Service can't function without them. Analytics cookies, set by PostHog, help us understand how the app is used so we can improve it; these are optional. Separately, we use Vercel Web Analytics for a privacy-friendly, aggregate count of page views; it is cookieless — it sets no cookies and collects no personal data or cross-site tracking — so it falls outside the choice below.

The first time you visit, a cookie banner lets you accept or decline analytics cookies. We do not load our cookie-based (PostHog) analytics until you accept, and declining leaves the rest of the Service fully working. You can change your choice at any time using the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer, or control cookies through your browser settings; note that disabling essential cookies may prevent you from signing in or using parts of the Service.

Data retention

We retain your account and Your Content for as long as your account is active, so your roadmap and progress remain available to you. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal information and Your Content within a reasonable period, except where we need to retain limited information to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.

Your choices and rights

You can review and update your account information at any time from within the app, and you can delete your account by contacting us at privacy@homebuyingsteps.com. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or similar state and national privacy laws — including rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, and to opt out of certain uses. To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@homebuyingsteps.com and we'll respond consistent with applicable law. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

Data security

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your information — including encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS, with TLS-enforced connections to our database) and encryption at rest: your sensitive financial details (such as income, debts, savings, and the figures in your saved plans) and your email address are encrypted before they are stored, so they are not held in plain text. Authentication is handled by Clerk, and our infrastructure is hosted on Amazon Web Services with restricted access controls. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we work continuously to protect your information and to improve our practices as the Service grows.

Children's privacy

The Service is intended for adults who are at least 18 years old and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@homebuyingsteps.com and we will take appropriate steps to remove it.

International users

Home Buying Steps is designed for buyers purchasing property in the United States, and our infrastructure and service providers are located in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S., where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our Service, legal obligations, or practices change. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app or by email. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or your information can be sent to privacy@homebuyingsteps.com.