Mortgage & Refinancing Information

Understanding Mortgage Basics


As common as mortgages are, there are a surprisingly large number of us who are under false impressions about the way they function, and what they actually are. For one thing, though we do commonly call mortgages "home loans," this is not at all what they actually are. In fact, mortgages aren't loans at all, nor are they something that have been given to you by lenders. More accurately, it is a security instrument that you have provided to a lender. It is a document that protects your lender's interest with your property itself.

A mortgage functions in the following way:

- A mortgager (you) - also referred to as a borrower (leading to the false impression that it is a home loan) and the mortgagee, who is also called the lender (again, falsely leading you to think that a loan has been lent).

- The mortgage document itself produces a lien on your property. This is the collateral - the security - for the mortgagee who has provided the security instrument. This lien is recorded within public records - likely at a county courthouse or similar establishment.

- Ownership of the property is then yours and cannot be transferred to anyone else until you have paid off the amount required to reverse the lien.

- Even if your property is mortgaged, you still own the property wholly and completely. Nobody else, not even the mortgagee has title to the property.

- The only right that your mortgage gives to the mortgagee over your property is to sell it to recover funds in the case that you do not pay off your debt. This is the dreaded process referred to as foreclosure.

- Should the mortgage be used for security, then the foreclosure must progress through the court system in order to be legal in the majority of circumstances. This type of foreclosure is referred to as a judicial foreclosure.

Obviously there is much more to mortgages than this, but these are the basic foundations upon which the mortgaging system has been constructed.

Dave Gonzalez
http://www.lowest-rate-mortgage-finder.com/


MORE RESOURCES:

Wachovia Posts Loss, Exits Wholesale Origination Business
Mortgageorb, CT - Jul 22, 2008
By MortgageOrb.com on Tuesday 22 July 2008 Consistent with previously announced expectations, Charlotte, NC-based Wachovia Corp. has reported a net loss in ...


ARM resets to hit peak this summer
Chicago Tribune, United States - Jul 13, 2008
By Renae Merle | The Washington Post The number of homeowners facing an increase in their subprime adjustable-rate mortgage payments will peak this summer, ...


LendingTree Names New Lender Sales Team
MarketWatch - Jul 22, 2008
... source of interested borrowers looking for home loans such as new purchase mortgage, refinance and home equity, as well as personal and auto loans. ...


ABC News

Money Managing Matters: Three Dos, Don'ts
ABC News - Jul 17, 2008
If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, refinance into a fixed rate one. Interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages are only going to go up, ...


DEBT ADVISOR
Columbia Daily Tribune, MO - Jul 21, 2008
Second, your mortgage-refinance issue is just the tip of the iceberg. Many people don’t know a negative credit history also will hurt you if you have to ...


Market rescue, round two
Livemint, India - Jul 14, 2008
The stocks of the two mortgage refinance institutions fell to levels last seen 15 years ago on concerns about their bearing the brunt of the exposure to ...


Tips on obtaining money through refinancing
Fall River Herald News,  USA - Jul 3, 2008
Here are a couple of pointers for those considering mortgage refinance to take cash out of their home: The traditional way of judging the market value of a ...


Reuters

Foreclosure-rescue legislation benefits both borrowers, lenders
Arizona Republic, AZ - Jul 12, 2008
by Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Jul. 13, 2008 12:00 AM AP The foreclosure-rescue legislation moving through Congress would let financially strapped homeowners ...
US housing agency expands mortgage aid program Reuters
all 81 news articles


Mortgage Rates Fall
HULIQ (press release), NC - Jul 16, 2008
Mortgage refinance applications also picked up over the week as homeowners take advantage of falling mortgage rates. The 30 year fixed mortgage rate ...


National Settlement Agency President Pleads Guilty to Embezzling
National Mortgage News, DC - Jul 16, 2008
By James Comtois After stealing more than $13 million in mortgage refinance proceeds, the former president of National Settlement Agency pleaded guilty ...

Mortgage-Refinance - Google News

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