Author Patrick J. Mansell, CMB, with 40 years of experience in the mortgage banking business, has created this book to bring financial literacy to the homebuying public. This book is targeted to anyone interested in real estate finance, which includes homeowners, home buyers, and students of real estate finance. It is suitable reading for a wide ranging audience including persons with a minimal level of financial understanding all the way to students at the undergraduate and graduate level in financial management. The book covers subjects such as loan qualifying, loan programns, loan amortization, the secondary mortgage market, closing costs, ARM financing, and the mistakes of the subprime borrowers and lenders.