Tips, trends and insights for homebuyers like you.
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What Is a 2-1 Buydown? Payments, Cost, and When It’s Worth It
Key takeaways How a 2-1 buydown works A 2-1 buydown temporarily lowers the principal and interest portion of your mortgage payment for two years. Your payment is calculated as if your interest rate were 2 percentage points lower in the first year and 1 percentage point lower in the second. Starting in year three, you… Read more
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2025 mortgage interest rate forecast
See how Tomo Mortgage’s head of Capital Markets breaks down the latest mortgage rate forecasts, predictions, and outlooks for 2025. Read more
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What’s the average age of a first-time homebuyer?
You might be asking: if I don’t own a home by the time I’m 30 am I totally failing at life? We feel you, and no. … Read more
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What Is a Promissory Note in Real Estate? (And How It Differs From a Mortgage)
A promissory note is your legal promise to repay the loan — it’s separate from the mortgage, which secures the lender’s interest in the property. Here’s… Read more
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What is a restrictive covenant in real estate jargon?
A restrictive covenant is like a set of rules that dictate what you can and can’t do with your property. It’s baked right into your property… Read more
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Is it good to buy in a HOA?
A HOA, or Homeowners Association, is essentially the neighborhood’s gatekeeper—and it can be a mixed bag. Roughly ⅓ of the U.S. lives in an HOA, and… Read more
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What’s better—a fixed rate or adjustable-rate mortgage (also known as an ARM)?
A fixed rate mortgage locks in your interest rate for the entire loan term, so your interest rate stays the same no matter what happens in… Read more
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LendingTree vs. Rocket Mortgage – what’s the difference?
Lending Tree & Rocket Mortgage: the basics LendingTree: The Marketplace Aggregator LendingTree is an online marketplace that connects borrowers with multiple lenders. Unlike Rocket Mortgage, LendingTree… Read more
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What is a mortgage Loan Officer?
A mortgage Loan Officer, also known as a Loan Advisor here at Tomo Mortgage, is the person you’ll likely work with the most when you’re looking… Read more
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What’s an Application Advisor?
After you win the offer on a new home, your Loan Advisor will introduce you to your Application Advisor (sometimes called a Loan Processor). It’s their… Read more
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Who does what in a mortgage company? Understanding your lending team
When you’re diving into the mortgage world, it’s easy to get mixed up between different roles. There’s a great big group of people who work both… Read more
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Trump vs. Harris: Who has a better plan for homebuyers?
Over the past 5 years, home prices have surged by over 50%. It’s no surprise that presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, are eager to… Read more
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Decoding the LTV in home loans
The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a key figure that lenders use to gauge the risk of your mortgage. It shows how much of your property’s value… Read more
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What’s a par rate—and does it really matter?
Mortgage lenders have different “point-values” associated with their interest rates, where there’s different costs associated. If you pay the lender more upfront for a lower interest… Read more