When I decided to buy a house, I took my time selecting a mortgage lender. After completing the application and providing all the necessary papers, I was startled to learn that my time working with that particular lender would be brief. (Recently, I learned that mortgage lenders frequently resell the loans they produce to generate cash so they can make new loans.

One of the safest ways to put your money to work is by buying Treasury bonds. When the price of a Treasury goes up, like with any other bond, the yield goes down. The yields on Treasuries are used to figure out fixed mortgage rates. The best time to get a fixed-rate home loan is when Treasury yields are low.

A loan's constant is the percentage of the total loan balance that is paid in interest and principal to the lender. Borrowers that want to pay their lenders less money each year and throughout the duration of the loan want a lower loan constant. The majority of borrowers utilized a loan-constant table to calculate their monthly payments before financial calculators were readily accessible. The loan-to-value ratio and the capitalization rate are two common metrics used by investors to assess the investment potential of a given property.