Fannie Mae is the common name of the Federal National Mortgage Association.  Fannie Mae is a congressionally chartered, shareholder-owned company that buys mortgages from lenders and resells them as securities on the secondary mortgage market.  Before approving you, Fannie Mae looks at a number of factors including credit ratings, debt ratio, and employment history.  Loans that are approved via Fannie Mae should qualify for a better rate.

Freddie Mac is the common name for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.  The 2006 maximum loan amount for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is $417,000.  Freddie Mac does not issue mortgages directly, rather, they buy mortgages from lenders and sell them as securities on the secondary mortgage market.  Before approving you, Freddie Mac looks at a number of factors including credit ratings, debt ratio, and employment history.  Like Fannie Mae, loans that are approved via Freddie Mac should qualify for a better rate.

An FHA loan (Federal Housing Administration) has some advantages over conventional loans.  Since FHA loans are insured by the government, they generally have more lenient qualification requirements, lower down-payment requirements, and they are assumable loans.  The maximum loan amount for an FHA loan (single-family) ranges depending on the county where you live.  You can contact a mortgage specialist for these maximum amounts for your specific county. 

A VA (Veterans Affairs) loan carries many of the same advantages as an FHA hom loan.  However, to qualify for this loan, you must be a qualifying veteran, the unmarried widow of a veteran, a Public Health Service Officer, or an active-duty serviceman. 

Click on the link below to find the FHA loan limits for your county.

https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm

Conventional loans that are too large for government agencies are called jumbo loans.  Currently, any loans over 417,000 are classified as jumbo loans.  Jumbo loans have higher rates than conforming loans and higher down payment requirements.

With a debt consolidation loan, all your debts will be consolidated into one simple monthly payment.  This payment is then disbursed to all your creditors.  Debt consolidation works to eliminate your late fees and reduce your interest rates to make that one monthly payment lower.  Avoid taking drastic steps such as bankruptcy by beginning a debt consolidation program today. 

A Reverse Mortgage is a loan that enables senior homeowners, age 62 and older, to eliminate all future monthly morgage payments and convert part of their equity into tax-free income without selling the home. 

Benefits:

• No monthly payment
• U.S. Government insured (FHA)
• No change of ownership
• Estate Planning- Your home can be inherited by your heirs or estate
• No income or Credit Requirements
• Tax-Free Cash- the money you receive is not considered income
• Social Security and Medicare Benefits won't change
• Automatic payoff of all existing mortgages and liens
• Cash disbursement options-monthly installments for life, credit line, lump sum cash advance, or a combination of any of the above
• No repayment until the home is sold or vacated 

If you plan on living in your home for a short time period - usually 7 years or less - an Adjustable Rate Mortgage is probably a perfect fit for you. Adjustable rate mortgages stay fixed for an initial time period (anywhere from 1 - 7 years) and then convert to a rate that varies with the indexed rate, so you may save more money with an ARM if you plan to stay in your home for a few years.

An Adjustable Rate Mortgage has an interest rate that is based on the fully indexed rate published in the Wall Street Journal. The rate of your ARM can move up and down depending on what the index rate is doing. Generally, Adjustable Rate Mortgages start with much lower interest rates than fixed-rate mortgages where the interest rate remains the same for the life of the loan.