How does your mortgage decision relate to product?

Jeff Thomas: Hi, I am Jeff Thomas. I am a Mortgage Advisor with Family Lender Inc. in Fairfax, Virginia. Today, we are going to discuss, how to purchase a home and the process that you must go through to find a home. Like to tell you, a little about myself. I have been in Mortgage Industry for 15 years, and I recently co-authored a book with Todd Ballenger called, How to Borrow Smart and Retire Rich, and now, we are going to discuss the seven steps.

Host: How does your mortgage decision relate to product?

Jeff Thomas: Your mortgage and your mortgage payment relate directly to the product that you choose. There is a basically three types of mortgage programmes out there. You are going to have something that is short term which would be three years or less, you have something that s what I consider, intermediate, which is five to ten years, and then you have long term, which is 10 years and longer, and those programs are really going to determine where, what problem you have? The two questions that you want to look at or ask yourself is, how long am I going to be in the house and how long do I think will have this mortgage?

The National Association of Realtors and Fannie Mae have come up, they have done some analysis, and the average person has a home between four and seven years and they have a mortgage about three-and-a-half years. So, on your first home -- you want to take look and go, realize it, you are probably not going to be in house for 30 years and you are probably not going to have that mortgage for more than five years. So, what you get when you buy a long term mortgage is you are paying a little bit more but you are getting -- if you take a look and ask those questions, you will end up with the right product for the right term.