What is a Mortgage?

Some refer to a mortgage as a home loan, lien, deed, etc. Regardless of the terminology, a mortgage is essentially an agreement between a bank and a borrower looking to purchase property.
The bank has metrics in place (mortgage calculator, loan calculator, mortgage qualifier, etc.) that will determine if they will loan you the money for your home purchase. The specified amount of money will then be repaid according to a set amount of years and interest rate (usually 15-year or 30-year fixed mortgage). The mortgage is essentially leverage for the bank in the event that you can't make your mortgage payments on time and pay it off in full. In the event of such misfortune - the bank can use the property as collateral and take your home - known as foreclosure. 

Stay tuned tomorrow as we will be going over the main types of mortgage transactions.