Chosing the Best Mortgage

One of the things we always look at with our customers is the type of mortgage that they have. That is also one of the questions we get asked the most.

There are basically 3 different types of mortgages: conventional, FHA, and VA.

A VA mortgage is available to those who have served our country in the armed forces. An FHA mortgage is one that is backed by the Federal Housing Administration. While there is nothing inherently bad about either of these, they are usually not the best deal because many times you will be putting less money down in the process.

The other is a conventional mortgage, which most people have. Within these, there can also be fixed-rates, adjustable rates, balloons, and many other sorts of things designed to make owning a house more affordable.

For the sake of brevity, please, do NOT buy a house unless you either pay cash, or take out at most a 15 - 20 year fixed rate mortgage. An adjustable rate is just what it says; the interest rate of the loan adjusts on a schedule and thus so do your payments. You will never know what your payments will be at any point in the future. Interest rates are still near the lowest point they've been in the last 40 years. They will most likely only go up from here.

Simply put, if you cannot afford to make payments on a 20 year fixed-rate mortgage, then you cannot afford that particular home. Adjustable rates are one of the biggest reasons for foreclosures today, and it is only getting worse.

If you are not in a fixed-rate currently, check out www.lukascoaching.com/trusted_services to see who we trust to help you get you in an affordable mortgage.