Your home is an investment. Because your home will typically increase in value and you will pay off your mortgage balance over time, your investment grows and grows. Often, this equity you are building can be leveraged to improve your home, improve your lifestyle, or help you realize other dreams you may have. This is the dream of homeownership and is one of the biggest reasons to consider owning instead of renting!
Most buyers will need a minimum down payment of 5% (20% for rental/investment properties) to purchase a home. There are even programs where you could borrow that initial 5% down, for more details check out this article HERE.
Choice of payment options, such as payment frequency and amount of down payment required, will most likely be your top priority. Flexibility in your mortgage payments can help you to better budget your finances and make you feel more comfortable overall with your home purchase. And in some cases it may even make sense to put less money down and use some of the leftover cash to renovate or pay down debts.
Mortgage payments can be made weekly, bi weekly, semi monthly and monthly. For more great info on payments, check out This Article on our Blog
Most lenders offer a variety of mortgage prepayment options to suit the unique needs of different home buyers. Many mortgages allow you to elect to increase your original mortgage payment or you can prepay a lump sum. For example, most closed mortgages allow you to prepay up to 10-20% of the original mortgage amount each year, without paying a prepayment charge.
When you get your mortgage setup, you'll have a regular payment automatically deducted from your account that covers all amounts you're required to pay. However your mortgage payment may consist of several components, such as principal and interest and property taxes.
Principal is the amount you originally borrowed, less any payments made towards it. This does not include interest, which is calculated on the remaining principal balance and paid with your regular payments. Each time you make a payment, you're typically repaying some of the principal.
Interest comprises a much larger percentage of your regular mortgage payment at the beginning of the mortgage than toward the end. This is because in most cases you are paying down your mortgage balance, so there is less interest to be paid with each payment.
Property taxes are based on the government assessment of the value of your property and may be part of your regular mortgage payment. This portion of your payment can be held in an account by your lender, until taxes are due each year. They can then remit payment to your city/municipality each year to cover your tax amount.