Attention to Fine Print May Help Reduce Loan Ordeals.

Do you remember the story of the lady whose mortgage ate her house?

She borrowed $30,000 and ended up owing her lender an astounding $127,000 just five years later. The payout represented 55 percent of the entire sales price of her home.

Loan nightmares like hers are spurring private and governmental efforts nationwide this year to educate homebuyers and owners to recognize the telltale signs of toxic or predatory mortgage deals. The efforts by leading home loan industry organizations including Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America and Fannie Mae are particularly timely in the midst of the wild refinance boom now underway.

Ask yourself: Do you know the dirty tricks used by purveyors of anti-consumer, harmful home loans? Are you potentially vulnerable to a mortgage rip-off? Please do not reflexively assume you're immune because you're middle-income or a professional.

Here's a quick primer on how to avoid the bad guys out there in the mortgage jungle. It is based in part on discussions with and materials provided by mortgage bankers and Freddie Mac.

* Know thyself know thy credit. Do you know how you stack up as a prospective borrower? That's a critical starting question because a "good" deal for someone with damaged credit may be a terrible deal for someone with excellent credit.

Before shopping for rates on the Web or by phone, get a copy of your current credit report. If you can convince a loan officer to tell you your credit score, find that out, too. If you've got a FICO (Fair, Isaac & Co.) score above 700, you're golden; you probably qualify for the lowest rates and fees in the market, and can shop accordingly.

If your credit report reveals multiple late payments and your score is in the low 600s or into the 500s, you are officially "subprime." You're going to be quoted rates and fees that are higher than those quoted to people with unblemished credit. But by knowing where you stand on the credit totem pole and aggressively shopping for multiple lending sources, you'll develop a sense of just how much extra you should pay.

Keep in mind: There are dozens of sub-prime home loan companies that want to compete on rates and fees for your business. They play a key role in the home buying field -- financing people with higher-risk credit profiles who otherwise would be vulnerable to predatory lenders and loan sharks.

* Know the deal. The lady who signed up for the mortgage that ate her house made two crucial mistakes: She talked to only one lender, and did not read her loan documents when they were shown to her.

But the devils of abusive loans often are alive and visible in the fine print. That's where many of the most common tricks of the predatory lending trade can be found.

* Negative amortization. Another way to keep monthly payments low is to pay off no principal and less than the correct amount of interest every month. At the end of a few years of this, you'll owe thousands more than when you started. Don't shop solely on the basis of monthly payment amounts, like auto shoppers often do. Demand in advance to see an amortization schedule showing how much you'll owe at year 5, year 10, etc.

* High points and padded closing costs. Abusive lenders often are looking for a piece of your home equity, and they get it up front, out of the proceeds of the refinancing. Say you do a "cash out" refi on a $200,000 house, moving the mortgage up from $100,000 to $150,000. Of the roughly $50,000 cash produced by the deal, how much do you actually end up with in your pocket? Look at the documents: If the loan broker is playing equity-stripping games, $10,000 or $15,000 or more could end up in his or her pocket.

Not a good deal -- and completely avoidable.

Kenneth Harney is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. Jane Bryant Quinn is on vacation. Her column will resume upon her return.

Zero-Down Loans Spur First Purchases

A policy change at the start of the year by the giant mortgage investor Fannie Mae symbolized a market transformation of huge practical importance to homebuyers across the country.

By adding zero down payment mortgages to its standard line of product offerings for the first time, Fannie Mae closed the door on an era. From colonial times through the last century, conventional home mortgages took various forms, but they always required a cash contribution by the homebuyer -- the mandatory down payment.

The down payment served to assure the lender that the buyer had a personal investment in the property, and would be, strongly motivated to pay off the debt. In the 1980s and '90s, however, down payments began to shrink. Private mortgage insurers were willing to provide back-up coverage to lenders that allowed them to offer 10 percent, 5 percent and, more recently, 3 percent down payments.

Smaller down payments, in turn, helped fuel the unprecedented housing boom of the past decade, pushing the national rate of homeownership to its current historical high of around 67 percent.

Last fall, Fannie Mae's competitor, Freddie Mac, announced that it would push the envelope to the next level and buy zero down payment home loans as a standard product. But Fannie cautiously held back -- until the beginning of the year. Now, virtually anybody, anywhere in the country with a good credit history, can buy a house with no cash down. Fannie Mae's program is aimed at first-time buyers; maximum loan size is $275,000. The buyers needn't invest any money in the house itself, but they have to be able to cover closing costs of 3 percent.

Fannie and Freddie's programs represent just part of the zero down payment opportunities now available to aggressive shoppers. Hundreds of lenders, including most of the biggest and best-known mortgage companies, offer other types of nothing-down plans.

But is the zero-down mortgage option for you? For some people -- young couples with good incomes but no savings -- it may be the only way to buy the house they want. For others, keep these points in mind: Zero-down is going to cost you more in mortgage payments every month, not just in higher principal and interest charges, but mortgage insurance as well. And in the event of a job loss or economic downturn, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the bargain. Your mortgage may be more than your house is worth, and you may only be able to sell for a loss.