Fair Market Value
At any given time, a piece of Real Estate (or anything else) has a theoretical price at which a buyer is willing to buy and a seller is willing to sell. This assessment presumes reasonable knowledge of all pertinent data on the part of both parties, neither of which is under any compulsion to either buy or sell. |
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Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac")
The FHLMC is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) authorized by the US Congress (that is, created by the federal government but stockholder-owned and publicly traded) that buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and then re-sells them as mortgage-backed securities on the open market. Freddie Mac helps to provide certain classes of borrowers with less expensive, fixed-rate loans while at the same time helping to remove credit risk from bank balance sheets. |
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Federal Housing Administration
The FHA, a division of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, assists low-income home buyers by insuring residential mortgage loans made by private lenders. |
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Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae")
The FNMA is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) authorized by the US Congress (that is, created by the federal government but stockholder-owned and publicly traded) to make loans and loan guarantees. Fannie Mae converts loans (for which the borrower is typically charged a guarantee fee) into mortgage-backed security bonds, thus helping to provide a greater degree of liquidity to the national mortgage market. |
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Fee Simple
"Fee simple absolute" is the most common legal condition under which real estate is owned, and represents absolute ownership (limited only by basic governmental authority such as taxation, eminent domain, police powers, etc.) |
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FHA Loan
The Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, is a government agency (part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development) that functions to improve housing standards and stabilize the national mortgage market. By insuring loans under certain conditions, it helps to maintain an adequate national home financing system. |
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Fiduciary
A fiduciary is a legal term assigned to a person in a position of trust and confidence of another (called the principal), often authorized to act on behalf of the principal. Examples include attorneys, physicians, trustees, and stockbrokers. |
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Firm Commitment
A "firm commitmen" from a lender represents a binding agreement to guarantee specific, fixed loan conditions to a borrower for a particular piece of property during a particular time frame. |
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First Mortgage
In the event a borrower goes into default and his/her assets must be sold in order to pay creditors, the "first mortgage" carries priority over any and all other obligations and liens against the property. |
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Foreclosure
In order to enforce payment of debt secured by a mortgage or deed of trust, a property may be legally confiscated from the mortgagor of possession and sold through a variety of legal means and processes collectively referred to as "foreclosure". |
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Fully Indexed Rate
Normally the basis for the computation of monthly loan payments, the "fully indexed rate" is the sum of the current value of the index and margin applied to the loan (For example if the index were 5% and the margin 2.75%, the fully indexed rate would be 7.75%). An Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) typically specifies this as the maximum interest rate that can be reassigned to the loan at the first adjustment. |
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