Why We Should Call it a Mortgage and Not a Loan!

by Deane Bruney

The most important thing you must realize about a mortgage is that what you believe it to be is actually wrong. They are not for instance a loan, even though the vast majority of people believe they are and often refer to them as a mortgage home loan.

The terms mortgagee (the financier) and mortgagor (buyer), are part of a legal contract (mortgage) which uses the property as security on the debt. More accurately, it is a document that protects your lender’s interest with your property itself and a legal agreement you have provided to a lender.

A mortgage is used as a method by which individuals or businesses can purchase residential or commercial property without paying the full value upfront. To help understand how this works, some important information is discussed here.

It is because the mortgagor is often referred to as the Borrower that has led to the misunderstanding that the finance for the purchase is a loan in the same way the name Lender is used to refer to the mortgagee. The document itself produces a lien on your property which is not cleared until the debt is paid.

The property you are buying does in fact become collateral for the finance that has been sought to pay for it and is the protection a mortgagee needs if he is going to continue financing house purchases. Records of this are normally kept in the public records section of the county courthouse or a similar establishment.

So while the property is recorded as yours, there is an interest in its ownership which cannot be altered until the debt is paid off. Even if your property is mortgaged, you still own the property wholly and completely and nobody else, not even the mortgagee has title to the property.

The mortgage is a surety for the benefit of the mortgagee, so should the debt remain unpaid then the amount owed can be reclaimed by the sale of the property. This process has many names and in the United States it is referred to as foreclosure but this does need to go through the courts.

To ensure that everything is legal and above board, the court will place a ruling on the disposal in a process called judicial foreclosure. I hope this brief introduction has further helped your understanding of an important but often overlooked area of personal finance.

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