They may not have held your hand through the lending process, but there's about a one-in-four chance Fannie Mae provided the money for your mortgage.

The company, which buys home loans from lenders, has plenty of information available at its Web site. For consumers, the first step should be to click on, well, "Consumers" -- a link that will take visitors to Fannie Mae's HomePath section. Here, they can find information grouped into three categories: What to consider before buying a home, what to do when buying a home and what to do when refinancing an existing loan. There are separate areas of the main site for shareholders, lenders, media professionals and job seekers, as well as those who might want to buy homes that Fannie Mae acquired through foreclosure.

The site works fine, but a plethora of graphics can slow down even the most dedicated bandwidth bandits. There is always a link back to the home page in the upper right hand corner of the screen, so returning to square one is easy enough. And unlike certain other sites, where finding out how to get a human on the phone is next to impossible, the "Contact Us" link available throughout allows people to reach out and touch someone with relative ease.

Best bets: Mortgage Chart: This chart allows borrowers to compare different loan offers. Glossary: A dictionary of mortgage terms and jargon. Fannie-owned homes: A tool for locating foreclosure homes for sale.