If you ever signed mortgage loan documents, chances are that you’ve never read all of the pages that you signed. Most people don’t, because it is very time consuming and there is too much meaningless disclosure paperwork that has little or nothing to do with your actual loan and has more to do with lender’s compliance with State and Federal laws.
There are documents that everybody must read before signing. One of these important documents is your mortgage “Note”. It is about five pages long and has the most important facts about your mortgage on it.
To identify this document, you need to go trough your mortgage paperwork and look for a document with the word “Note” in its title. Usually it says something like “Fixed Rate Mortgage Note”, or “Adjustable Rate Mortgage Note”, but it will always have the word “Note” in the title of the document. The title itself will tell you if you have a fixed or adjustable rate mortgage loan.
Your mortgage note will tell you a lot about your mortgage. It sates your rate, and in case of an adjustable rate mortgage, it states how long the introductory rate is good for. The note should list all of your scheduled mortgage rate increases, and towards the end it should cover pre-payment rights and pre-payment penalties.
Whether you are currently in the process of taking out a mortgage loan, or had it for several years, it is very important to become familiar with you Mortgage Note. It is a complete overview of your loan that lists all of the terms and conditions of your biggest financial obligation.
Mr. Shkolnik is a Loan Consultant employed by Express Capital Funding Group, www.expfunds.com. He has over ten years of experience Financing Real Estate transactions.
