The website is Real-estate-yogi.com, and it is a font of information about second mortgages. For example, I learned that going for a second mortgage is very much like applying for our first one. Getting our first mortgage was fairly easy, so I felt better about getting a second one when I heard that.

It turns out that buying a second home mortgage is all about shopping around. I knew that contacting several lenders to get the best interest rate and terms on the second mortgage is smart; I'd done that when we were looking for our first mortgage. Real-estate-yogi.com reminded me that my husband and I would have to provide proof of our incomes and that we're both employed. We'll also have to give the lender all of our financial information, such as what's left on the first mortgage, how much debt we have, and the balances are in on our credit cards.

I have to admit, without Real-estate-yogi.com, I would not have understood the benefits of a mortgage for a second home purchase. One of them is that the interest on the loan is tax deductible, just as it's been on our first mortgage. What I didn't know is that the IRS put a limit on how much we could deduct on our taxes. As of 2011, we can deduct only 1.1 million dollars between both mortgages. I also learned that, if we had a home equity loan, we'd be able to deduct up to $50,000 per home per year.

I found out more about the buying a second home mortgage rules, too. If we rented out our second home "" not our first "" for more than 2 weeks per year, the IRS handles it differently. We can't take the total mortgage deduction we'd be entitled to if we did not rent it out. Real-estate-yogi.com is such a help when it comes to the financial part of realty dealings! Without this terrific website, I'd never have known to expect a higher interest rate on our second mortgage because we'll be carrying so much more debt.