The mortgage community is heavily populated with hundreds of loan programs. There are loans for different types of buyers:

• Those who want to put a little money down to no money down;

• Mortgages for those who just want to sign the bottom line and keep their personal financial information private; and

• Mortgages for those who are interest conscience and want interest rates that are fixed, adjustable or even interest only -- which lowers your payment, but keeps you in debt for the full term of the mortgage.

There are also loan programs designed for certain types of properties. Most conforming loans (which means they conform to a pre-determined set of standards so that they can be sold on the secondary market) have a whole list of parameters of how the program can be used. It may require that the borrower is going to move into the property and that the property is a single-family dwelling, not a condominium.

The type of property you purchase could limit the type of financing you desire. So if you shop online for mortgages or dash to the phone to call in on that great rate -- remember that the rate or program you're looking at may be for a traditional 30-year mortgage to purchase a traditional home dwelling, which provides the least amount of risk to the lender.

If you're considering financing for raw land, for instance, you're not going to be looking at a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 5.75 percent with a very low down payment. In fact, if the raw land has no improvements whatsoever, you may even have to make a substantial down payment, like 30 to 50 percent if you're talking with a traditional bank. A land loan presents higher risk to an investor/bank because of the ease of being able to walk away from the property. Owner financing, however, may provide you with more flexibility, a lower down payment and smaller interest rate.

Here are a few other types of property that have programs designed specifically for their purchase:

Manufactured Home

About 8 percent of the U.S. population lives in manufactured homes. In 2001, the average sales price of these dwellings weighed in at $48,800, according to the Manufactured Home Institute. However, when it comes to purchasing these mobile dwellings -- it may take two loans to get the transaction complete. The $48,800 would be on top of the cost of your lot. MHI's consumer site, www.FactoryBuiltHousing.com, details how the two loans required involve a personal property loan for the manufactured home and a real property loan for the land (if you don't own the lot already). The personal property loan rate is going to be about 2-3 percentage points higher than the real property mortgage.

New Construction

If you're looking to build your home on a lot, then you'll be looking at a construction loan, which is usually an interest-only product that becomes payable once you obtain the certificate of occupancy for your new property. In essence, once it comes due, you would refinance the property to include the lot and the final construction costs into one loan, secured by the finished product -- your house and lot.

Fixer-Upper

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has a neat product called the 203(k). The 203(k) product is designed for the purchaser who wants to buy a fixer upper that a traditional lender may not want to finance because of its condition. If you want to use this program, you must state in your contract that you're going to use this loan and must get approval from FHA before the transaction is finalized. For more information, search for the product at www.HUD.gov.

Multi-Family Housing

Financing for multi-family units is its own subcategory in the mortgage industry. Most investors will be pleasantly surprised to find that there is plenty of money out there from lenders who want to invest with purchasers of multi-family dwellings. For deeper details about how these programs work, visit the HUD website and click through the various links about the program types.

What you'll find are programs for rental housing, manufactured home parks, redevelopment loans for refurbishing multi-family units as you purchase them, rental housing for the elderly, nursing homes and much more.

As you research your real estate investing options, don't forget to look at the financing as much as you seek out the real property. Without financing, most transactions won't happen.

Published: October 8, 2004

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Mr. Carr has covered real estate since 1989. He is the author of Real Estate Investing Made Simple. Got a personal real estate issue? Post your questions and comments at Anthony’s blog: commonsenserealestate.blogspot.com.