Mortgage Max

There's little doubt that getting a mortgage loan is a complex process. You would not be looking up loan information if it were possible to get a mortgage loan in one day with a simple application. We do the heavy lifting for you, so you can concentrate on what's important - preparing to move into your new home or saving money.

Anything you submit over our website is 100 percent, fully secure. And we never, ever share it with anyone except by permission -- that is, if you're giving us information you want us to use to get you the best loan, we use that information to tell mortgage lenders about you and convince them to loan you money.

You'll see an interest rate and an Annual Percentage Rate (A.P.R.) for each mortgage loan you see advertised. The easy answer to "why" is that federal law requires the lender to tell you both. The A.P.R. is a tool for comparing different loans, which will include different interest rates but also different points and other terms.

When you are promised a "rate lock" from the lender, it means that you are guaranteed to keep a certain interest rate over a determined period while you work on the application process. This ensures that your interest rate will not get higher while you are going through the application process. Rate lock periods can be various lengths of time, anywhere from 15 to 60 days, with the longer spans typically costing more.

A fixed-rate loan features a fixed payment amount for the entire duration of your loan. Your property taxes increase, or rarely, decrease, and so might the homeowner's insurance in your monthly payment. But generally monthly payments for a fixed-rate loan will increase very little. Early in a fixed-rate loan, a large percentage of your monthly payment pays interest, and a significantly smaller percentage goes to principal.