If you are considering buying a home, then you may be more than a little confused by all of the terms you hear about home loans. After all, lenders throw around words like fixed rate, balloon mortgages and adjustable rate mortgages without a thought. But if you aren’t at least familiar with the basics—those terms can be pretty confusing!

If you want to make your mortgage more manageable by refinancing, you have two options: you can reduce your payment while lengthening the mortgage terms, or shorten the mortgage terms while paying more or less the same amount monthly.