>> On the one hand, I don't want to slow things down any more than they
>> already are. On the other hand, I want to find the best deal.
>
> That's sensible.  Also bear in mind, though, that if you do a 30-year
> term, most people don't stick with that term.  They refinance when the
> interest rates go down, sometimes adjusting the term (in the US, it's not
> uncommon to start with a 30-year term and then later to switch to a 15-
> year term, or to just refinance with a new 30-year term).

Can you actually do that?

Obviously, I've never had a mortgage. But from other loans I've had, if 
you try to pay back more money or pay it off early, they charge you very 
steep penalty fines.

> Just remember that the term isn't "the rest of your entire working life",
> it's "until you refinance or sell the property".  What you want is to
> increase the value so when you sell, you get more than you paid (or will
> pay in principal by the end of the term)

I had assumed that the value of a property can only go down, never up.

I mean, think about it. The longer I have the property, the older and 
therefore less desirable it becomes. The green fields around it get 
built on, reducing the value. The surrounding properties get cheaper so 
the wrong sort of people start moving in and making the neighbourhood 
undesirable. And so on.

I guess if you did something to massively transform the property you 
could conceivable raise its value. (E.g., taking a derelict shell and 
turning it back into a habitable building.) But other than that, it 
would seem obvious that property, like everything else, gets less and 
less valuable over time.

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