Some good info in here, and some not so good.
First off, you should can do all the research you want, but you really shouldn't get into the nitty gritty until you're within shooting distance of when you want to buy. The information you get today may not necessarily be accurate a year from now, especially in today's crazy market.
Second, loans are based on risk. The riskier the loan, the worst the terms. It's really not rocket science. Ads and Lenders want you to think it is, but it really isn't. It's all about perceived risk. The riskier you seem to the Lender, the less options they will give you. The trouble with the Mortgage Market that everyone is hearing about right now is due to the effects of doing riskier loans all over the place a few years ago. 3-4 yrs ago, just about anyone could get a home loan with decent terms. That's not the problem. The problem comes in when you lend money at crazy terms to risky people. So now that the market started to adjust UP, crazy cooky interest-only ARM loans that were given to people because that was the ONLY way they would qualify back then are now drowning them because they can no longer afford them when the payment goes up.
*Up on my soapbox for a minute to educate some people*
This is not always, as the media will portray, the "lenders" fault. Lenders lend money to people based on economic factors including supply and demand. If your neighbor refi'd his house and he told you that he got 6% and his new pmnt on his house was $700 while you are at 7.5% with a $1200 a mo. payment. You think, "wow, I want one of those...". Problem is that you didn't take into consideration that 3 yrs from now, the payment shoots up from $700 to something else. If you couldn't afford that "something else" 3 yrs ago, then you are likely not to be able to afford it now. Right? THIS is what's causes foreclosures and problems in the market right now. If you were a broker/Lender back then, you damn sure couldn't afford to turn away all those next door neighbors that came calling asking for those specific loans. That's like complaining about paying $1000 for PS3's when 2 short mos later you could get them for $600. Who's fault is it that you paid $1000 because you wanted it on the very day it came out? Same thing here. Everyone is blaming "bad brokers" for selling a product that PEOPLE demanded. You could preach to them til you're blue in the face, they STILL wanted it. Now, they want to blame everyone but themselves.
*end of soapbox rant*
Third, Mortgage Insurance is indeed a rip off. If you can avoid it, do it like the plague. There are several ways to do it, all of which have pros and cons. The most common is to do 2 loans vs 1 loan IF you don't have the 20% already to put down. There are several combinations, but the idea is that neither loan is over 80%. 80/20, 80/10/10, 75/25, 80/5/15....etc. You get the pic. The down side is that you will have additional closing costs (since there are 2 loans vs 1) and that the terms on the 2nd loan are never as good as the terms on the 1st. With that said, when you put it side-by-side with a loan WITH MI (be it MIP or PMI) it is OFTEN cheaper per month than the loan with MI.
Finally, Your personal qualifications, along with anyone else going on the loan with you, is what usually has the biggest impact on what will be available to you in terms of options. It all goes back to risk. If you are seen as a risk.....no established credit, bad credit, slow credit, jumping from job to job, no rental history, no GOOD rental history, little to no savings pattern, little to no reserves, little to no down payment, lots of existing debt, high DTI's, etc.....all are seen as higher than normal risks. Therefore, you can't really expect to be too demanding on your loan terms. You may have 3 options or you may have none. It's all up to how you look on paper to that underwriter at the time your loan is submitted. That's the real bottomline. You have to be realistic. You can't expect to buy a house that costs $200,000, with NO money down, and also have a $500/mo payment. The math doesn't even make that a possibility unless you're doing a 40 yr loan at 0% interest. Believe me, there is no such thing.
If you have limited qualifications, own up to that and understand that you may not be able to get prime-A interest and/or terms. That doesn't mean you'll have a crappy loan or terms. It just means you may not be able to get that 5% interest that your buddy TOLD you he/she had. Remember, they may have a 5% interest NOW......but that doesn't mean they told you everything that is behind the curtains on that loan either.
Consult someone that knows what they're doing. Don't buy into the hype that is sold on TV everyday. They're all mostly infomercials just like the rest. Ask someone that knows what they're talking about and make up your mind then. Don't try to copy what your neighbor TOLD you he/she has. They may just lead you down a dark alley.
Any specific questions, I'll be happy to try and answer.
