What is a Mortgage?
A "Mortgage" or more specifically, a "mortgage note" is your promise to pay back the money you borrow from the lender in order to purchase a home, pay off a current loan in a refinance transaction, or to get cash to use for other purposes such as funding a retirement account, college education expenses, consolidate unsecured debt, etc.... The term "mortgage" is used because you are offering to provide a property as collateral for the loan that you are requesting. If you are approved for the mortage, then the lender will require you to sign a "Deed of Trust" that is recorded in the public records as evidence to all parties that the property has been used as collateral for a loan. Once the loan is paid off, the lender will file a Release of the Deed of Trust acknowledging the debt is no longer owed.