Mortgage and Real Estate Glossary

Real Estate Definitions and Terms: F

Offers a Mortgage and Real Estate glossary for real estate and mortgage terms and definitions for home buyers, home sellers, and real estate consumers. Find expanded definitions of important real estate and mortgage home loan terms.

Please select the first letter of the mortgage or real estate word you are looking for and then scroll the listing below to find that word.

Definitions and Terms: F

Fair Credit Reporting Act - A law that protects consumer that regulates the reporting of consumer credit by agencies and establishes procedures for correcting errors on an individual record.

Fair Housing Act - Law that prohibits discrimination in all facets of the homebuying process on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability.

Fair Market Value - Hypothetical price that a willing buyer and seller will agree upon when they are acting freely, carefully, and with complete knowledge of the situation.

Fannie Mae (FNMA) - The Federal National Mortgage Association is a congressionally chartered, shareholder-owned company. This organization is the nation's largest supplier of home mortgage funds.

Fannie Mae's Community Home Buyer's Program - A program that offers flexible underwriting guidelines to subsidize a low- to moderate-income family's purchase of a home. The program usually decreases the total amount of cash needed to purchase a home.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) - An agency under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), it insures loans made by approved lenders to qualified borrowers, in accordance with its regulations.

Fees - Up-front costs associated with a loan. Clicking on the word VIEW shown under the "Fees Detail" column on the quotes results page will display detailed information about the financial institution's fees and requirements pertaining to that rate.

Fee Simple - The best title that one can obtain; unqualified and conveys the highest bundle of rights.

FHA Loan - A government-backed mortgage loan supported by the US FHA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Finance Charge - The total dollar amount your loan will cost you. It includes all interest payments for the life of the loan, any interest paid at closing, your origination fee and any other charges paid to the lender and/or broker. Appraisal, credit report and title search fees are not included in the finance charge calculation.

Firm Commitment - A lender's agreement to provide a loan to a specific borrower on a specific property.

First Mortgage - A mortgage that has priority over other mortgages.

Fixed-Rate Mortgage - A mortgage where the interest rate does not change for the life of the loan.

Float - Between the time of application and closing, a borrower may choose to bet on interest rates decreasing by electing to float. Floating is essentially choosing not to lock the interest rate. Since it is the borrower's responsibility to lock his or her rate before (or at) closing, choosing to float is considered risky and may result in a higher interest rate. Request information from your lender regarding lock procedures.

Flood Insurance - Insurance that protects homeowners against losses from a flood; if a home is located in a flood plain, the lender will require flood insurance before approving a loan.

Forbearance - The postponement for a limited time of a portion or all the payments on a loan when a borrower is delinquent.

Foreclosure - A legal procedure in which real estate is sold by the lender to pay a defaulting borrower's debt .

Freddie Mac - Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLM); a federally-chartered corporation that purchases residential mortgages, securitizes them, and sells them to investors; this provides lenders With funds for new homebuyers.