Primary Mortgage Security

A Primary Mortgage Security is evidence of a debt secured by real estate. Also known as a "mortgage" or "mortgage instrument" or "mortgage deed" or "deed of trust"; or:

Mortgage Security

Mortgage Instrument

Primary mortgage securities are also know by various "terms of art" including:

Private Mortgage

Private Mortgage Loan

Primary mortgage securities are created by investors (individuals or corporations) who choose to invest their money, not by buying shared in a company or units of a mutual fund, or treasury bills or a similar investment vehicle, but rather, by loaning their surplus (investable) wealth, to other parties (either individual or corporate borrowers), using the borrower's real estate as collateral.

A primary mortgage security is not the same as "Mortgage Backed Securities" or "Securitized Mortgages", where multiple primary mortgage instruments are acquired by an a "aggregator/securitizer" and then "resold" as a package in a marketplace called the secondary mortgage market. Instead, a primary mortgage security simply represents a singular evidence of one borrower's debt obligation and the real estate upon which the debt obligation is secured.

Primary mortgage securities may be bought, sold or otherwise traded by investors.