First Horizon is one of those lenders that flies under the national radar. It doesn’t run Super Bowl ads or put its name on a stadium, and if you live outside the Southeast you may never have heard of it. Inside its footprint, though, the Memphis-based bank writes a serious volume of home loans, and the product list is wider than most people expect from a regional lender.
Here’s what a First Horizon mortgage actually looks like right now, from the loan types on offer to the places where the deal stops looking so shiny.
Who First Horizon Is (and Why a Failed Merger Still Matters)
First Horizon Bank is headquartered in Memphis and runs roughly 400 branches, clustered in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas, with a growing presence in Florida and Texas. Its mortgage division writes purchase loans, refinances, construction financing and jumbo products, plus a set of first-time buyer programs that never show up in a national call center’s script.
One piece of history is worth knowing before you shop. In 2022, TD Bank Group agreed to buy First Horizon for $13.4 billion, then walked away in May 2023 when regulators wouldn’t approve the deal. First Horizon stayed independent. If you find older articles calling it “TD’s US arm” or quoting combined financials, none of that ever closed.
What’s left is a mid-size regional bank that competes on relationship pricing and local underwriting rather than the lowest headline rate on a rate table. Whether that trade works for you depends on your file, your timeline, and how much hand-holding you want.
The Loan Menu: More Variety Than a Typical Bank
Regional banks usually nudge borrowers toward whatever their pricing desk likes that week. First Horizon’s list is broader than that.
- Conventional fixed-rate loans in 10, 15, 20 and 30-year terms, including 3% down options through Fannie Mae HomeReady and Freddie Mac Home Possible for income-qualified buyers.
- Adjustable-rate mortgages, typically 5/6, 7/6 and 10/6 structures, which make sense if you’re confident you’ll move or refinance before the first reset.
- FHA loans at 3.5% down with a 580 minimum credit score.
- VA loans with zero down and no monthly mortgage insurance for eligible veterans and surviving spouses.
- USDA loans, also zero down, in eligible rural areas. That covers far more of the rural South than most buyers assume.
- Jumbo loans. The conforming limit for 2025 sits at $806,500 in most counties, and First Horizon keeps a portfolio jumbo program for loans above it.
- Construction-to-permanent financing on a single close, which converts to a standard mortgage once the home is finished and saves you a second set of closing costs.
- Renovation loans, including FHA 203(k), for buyers who want to wrap repair costs into the purchase price.
Physician and professional loans
First Horizon runs a professional lending program aimed at doctors, dentists and attorneys. In the right markets it can reach 100% financing with no private mortgage insurance for residents, fellows and early-career practitioners. If you’re graduating with $250,000 in student debt, avoiding PMI on a $450,000 house keeps roughly $190 a month in your pocket. That beats a small rate discount every time.
Construction and renovation
The single-close construction loan is the standout. You lock the permanent rate at the start, draw funds as the build progresses, and the loan converts automatically at completion. On a $500,000 build, skipping a second round of origination, title and appraisal fees generally keeps somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 in your pocket.
Down Payment Help Most Buyers Never Ask About
First Horizon participates in several assistance programs, and the details shift by state and by year, so the only way to know what you qualify for is to ask directly.
- Its own first-time buyer grants, typically $5,000 to $10,000 in select markets, structured as a forgivable second lien that disappears if you stay in the home for five years.
- State housing agency loans, including THDA Great Choice in Tennessee, Louisiana Housing Corporation programs, and Florida Housing’s bond and down payment offerings. First Horizon acts as a participating lender on several of them.
- HomeReady and Home Possible, which allow 3% down and reduced mortgage insurance for households under the area income limit.
Ask the question as plainly as you can: “What down payment assistance am I eligible for?” Loan officers who don’t work with those programs regularly won’t bring them up on their own.
How First Horizon’s Mortgage Rates Stack Up
No bank publishes one rate for every borrower. Your quote depends on credit score, down payment, occupancy, property type and how long you lock. With that said, First Horizon’s posted rates are usually competitive with other regionals and rarely the absolute cheapest. Credit unions and online mortgage lenders often come in 0.125% to 0.25% below on a 30-year conventional.
Where the bank gains ground is on the extras. A relationship discount of 0.125% to 0.25% is common if you move a checking account with direct deposit over. In-house jumbo underwriting avoids the fee layers some brokers stack on. Portfolio loans exist for borrowers who don’t fit agency guidelines, and those are precisely the files that get turned down everywhere else.
Fees deserve as much attention as the rate. Expect an origination fee of 0.5% to 1% of the loan amount, plus appraisal, title, recording and prepaid items. Closing costs typically land between 2% and 5% of the purchase price, so on a $350,000 home you’re looking at $7,000 to $17,500. Compare Loan Estimates line by line instead of comparing rates alone, and don’t treat the first offer as final. You can negotiate mortgage rates more often than most borrowers realize, especially with a competing offer in hand.
One more comparison worth running: how the payment stacks up against rent for the same house. A lower rate doesn’t automatically make buying cheaper, particularly in the first three years when closing costs and a front-loaded amortization schedule eat the difference. If you’re on the fence, look at mortgage rates versus rent prices side by side rather than assuming one wins by default.
What the Application Process Actually Looks Like
A pre-qualification takes about ten minutes online and uses a soft credit pull, so it won’t touch your score. Full pre-approval is a different animal. You’ll upload pay stubs covering 30 days, W-2s for two years, two months of bank statements, and tax returns if you’re self-employed or earn rental income. Turnaround is usually one to three business days.
From accepted offer to closing, plan on 30 to 45 days. Appraisal scheduling is the most common bottleneck, and lock extensions run a few hundred dollars if a seller drags things out. A 60-day lock costs slightly more upfront but pays for itself in a hot market where repair negotiations add a week.
Refinancing With First Horizon
Existing customers can refinance into a lower rate or a shorter term, and the same relationship pricing applies. Run the break-even math before committing. If refinancing costs $6,000 and saves $180 a month, you need 33 months to come out ahead. That’s fine if you’re staying put and a bad deal if a job move is plausible. A refinance rate calculator gives you that number in about two minutes.
Watch the term you’re signing, too. A slightly lower rate on a product you can’t easily exit gets expensive the moment your plans change, which is the trap behind closed mortgage terms that cost thousands to escape. Read the prepayment language on portfolio and construction products specifically, since those don’t always follow standard agency rules.
Where First Horizon Isn’t the Right Fit
The bank does some things well and other things slowly.
- Speed. First Horizon generally closes in 30 to 45 days. If you need 14, look elsewhere.
- A fully digital process. The online portal works, but documents still run through a loan officer. Borrowers who want everything app-based should compare it to online-first lenders like Axos.
- Geography. Buying outside the Southeast footprint means getting routed to a partner or turned down outright.
- Complicated self-employed income. Multiple LLCs, K-1s and aggressive write-offs slow things down. A broker with specialty lender access may move faster.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign
Walk into the conversation with a short list and you’ll catch most of the surprises early.
- What’s the rate, the APR, and the total closing cost on the Loan Estimate, not just the note rate?
- How long is the rate lock, and what does an extension actually cost?
- Is a relationship discount available, and what do I have to do to keep it?
- Which down payment assistance programs apply in this county?
- Will this loan be serviced by First Horizon or sold, and does that change anything for me?
- What’s the prepayment language on this specific product?
- If I refinance in two years, what will that cost?
Get those answers in writing, stack them against two other lenders, and you’ll know within an afternoon whether the First Horizon mortgage offer is genuinely the best one on your table.