Principal

A payment made by a lender to a mortgage broker for delivering an above-par loan. A par loan is one on which the lender charges zero points. Lenders charge points on loans carrying ...

Acceptance of the borrower's loan application. Approval means that the borrower meets the lender's Qualification Requirements and also its Underwriting Requirements. In some cases, ...

The interest rate used to calculate the mortgage payment. The interest rate and the payment rate are often the same, but they need not be. They must be the same if the payment is fully ...

A computer-driven process for informing the loan applicant very quickly, sometimes within a few minutes, whether the application will be approved, denied, or forwarded to an underwriter. ...

A plan purporting to protect FHA homebuyers against property defects. ...

The sum of all interest payments to date or over the life of the loan. This is an incomplete measure of the cost of credit to the borrower because it does not include upfront cash ...

A bundle of mortgage characteristics that lenders view as comprising a distinct category. The characteristics used include whether it is an FRM, ARM, or Balloon, the term, the initial ...

A lender who specializes in lending to sub-prime borrowers. ...

A sale price below market value, where the difference is a gift from the sellers to the buyers. Such gifts are usually between family members. Lenders will usually allow the gift to count ...