Mortgage add on fees can be paid upfront by including them in your closing costs or by increasing the rate and using the money that creates to pay them. These are mortgage lender fees not fees charged by a broker or loan officer. All mortgages with certain risk factors have add ons set by the [...]

An adjustable rate mortgage is one where the interest rate can change periodically. Many people do not think they have an ARM because of the initial fixed rate portion of the mortgage. But remember…if the rate can ever change..even once..it is an adjustable rate mortgage. Adjustable Rate Mortgage Definition Conventional ARM’s are typically 1 year [...]

An adjustment period is just one of the confusing aspects of a mortgage with an adjustable rate. And if you are confused do not feel bad. Most originators have trouble figuring it out too! Adjustment Period Definition On an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), the adjustment period is the time allotted between interest rate recalculation. The [...]

An amortization schedule tells you how much of your monthly payment is going to pay down your principal and how much is going to pay the interest. This can be very eye opening. In the beginning of your mortgage, your payment is almost all interest with very little going toward paying down the balance. Towards [...]

What is the APR rate you find on your Truth in Lending disclosure and why is it different and higher than the mortgage rate you thought you were getting? This is very confusing to most people. Either you know about APR or annual percentage rate and are told it is a way to compare mortgage [...]

A balloon mortgage is a mortgage that has a payment calculated over a long period like 30 years. However, the mortgage balance is due and payable before the 30 years are up. For example, a 15 year balloon mortgage would mean the payment is calculated or amortized over 30 years but at the 15 year [...]

Bi-weekly mortgage payments are another way to pay extra principal and therefore pay down your principal faster. You can do this with a company or by yourself. Biweekly Mortgage A bi-weekly mortgage payment is when you break up your mortgage payment in half and pay it every two weeks instead of the whole payment just [...]

A Broker Price Opinion or BPO is used to establish the value of a piece of real estate (ie. a house) quickly and inexpensively. The BPO is predominantly used during a foreclosure process when an offer of a short sale is in the making. Lender mitigation departments are dealing now with a ton of short [...]

The Capital Purchase Program or CPP was a quick way to add capital/liquidity to banks in trouble instituted by the Treasury Department in October of 2008. Capital Purchase Program If we remember back to the fall of 2008, the banking industry was supposedly on the verge of collapse. Along came Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke [...]