Whether you’re buying your first home or refinancing your existing home, you have a host of financing options available.  But before you start talking about points, fees, and closing costs, you need to decide whether to choose a fixed-rate or adjustable-rate mortgage.

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) earned a bad reputation leading up to the housing bust, and with good reason, but that was largely the fault of predatory lenders who oversold houses to underqualified buyers with artificially low initial payments.  Still, ARMs are a bit of a gamble, and they are absolutely the wrong tool for homeowners trying to squeeze into the most house they can afford.