A handout image shows features of the Keep Home app, designed to provide a comprehensive resource for first-time and first-generation homebuyers. Image courtesy of Framework Homeownership

A company founded by a pair of housing nonprofits has launched what they say is the country’s first independent app dedicated to helping first-time and first-generation homebuyers navigate through the entire homeownership journey.

Free for iOS and Android, the Keep Home app includes courses, budgeting tools, checklists and more to “help overwhelmed consumers navigate the stressful, complex and life-changing process of buying and maintaining a home,” the announcement from Boston-based Framework Homeownership stated.

“Everyone deserves the opportunity to own a home, including those for whom homeownership has been historically and systematically held out of reach,” Danielle Samalin, CEO of Framework, said in a statement. “Keep is dedicated to supporting all consumers as they seek, buy and maintain a home – building long term financial security for their future.”

Owned by two prominent affordable housing nonprofits – the Housing Partnership Network and the Minnesota Homeownership Center – Framework says it has has provided innovative education to more than 600,000 first-time and first-generation homeowners through partnerships with nonprofit organizations and lenders. In its announcement, the company touted their app’s agnostic approach to financial transactions, which does not drive users toward a specific transaction unlike many other real estate apps, instead focusing on being a resource for prospective homebuyers and homeowners on a wide range of issues.

Keep incorporates course content, technology tools and “personalized human-to-human guidance” to help users navigate homeownership, the company said, from budgeting, finding a real estate agent, making an offer, and preparing for closing through moving, maintenance and repairs, managing contractors, organizing warranties and more. Keep also provides definitions for common real estate terms like escrow or amortization. The company promises to update the app regularly with new, predictive features

The company stated it felt its product was necessary based on the results of its recent survey that found: 47 percent of homebuyers think the buying process is “rigged” against the buyer, and 44 percent fear making costly mistakes.