Have you ever seen the get rich quick "guru" on television late at night talking about buying homes with no down payment? Ever wonder if it really can be done? For the first time buyer or anyone wanting to purchase a home to live in with decent credit it's an easy thing to do. Most mortgage lenders are able to offer a 100 percent mortgage. The usual qualifier is a credit score of 620 or above. Although with the mortgage market becoming more competitive some lenders are accepting a lower credit score for the 100 percent mortgage. There are two basic types of 100 percent mortgages. The standard mortgage and the 80/20 mortgages.

A standard 100 percent mortgage is simply one bank giving you a mortgage for 100 percent of the purchase price of a property. The down fall is you will have to have private mortgage insurance ( PMI ) until you have 20 percent equity in the house. If you only make standard payments and don't do anything to increase the value of the home you may be looking at twelve years before you have 20 percent equity. PMI is not tax deductible and can easily increase your payment by forty to sixty dollars a month.

With the 80/20 loan a lender will give you a first mortgage for 80 percent of the purchase price of a property and a 20 percent second mortgage. The interest rate of the second loan is usually higher and is for a much shorter term. Ten years is average for the second mortgage. Despite the higher interest rate and the shorter term of the second mortgage the total payment of both loans will be about the same or less than the standard 100 percent mortgage because there is no PMI with the 80/20 loan. The 80/20 loan is far more beneficial because all of the interest paid on both loans is tax deductible, each month you pay more towards the principal balance of the loans and after the second mortgage is paid off your total monthly payment is a lot less.

Of course everyone has a different situation. If you are only looking to stay in the home for a couple years this probably is not right the loan for you. It's not likely you will build enough equity in just a couple of years to be able to afford to sell the home without having to bring money to the closing. Of course you should always talk to your mortgage professional before making any decisions.