Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Importance Of Using A Mortgage Calculator

By John Smith

Your dream house may not be everyone else idea of "Home, Sweet Home," but it's going to be all yours. Now if you can just figure out how to finance that bit of real estate. Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, you're on this site to get some background for your decision. One kind of mortgage calculator ("how much house can I afford" type) takes a look at your budget and, with your input, works out how much you can afford to pay, either monthly or annually. Some are not comprehensive enough to take into account taxes, insurance and the increased costs of home ownership.

It's worth your extra time to pull up several of these mortgage calculators and run your numbers through them for comparison. Then you're ready for the next step. The fixed rate mortgage gives you the same monthly payment for the life of your mortgage. That's what you just worked through. This means you can set up your household budget more precisely and have greater control over how your money is spent. A "how much can I borrow" mortgage calculator helps you work out how much you can afford to pay for the house altogether. It also depends upon the interest rates you negotiate with the lender, an increase in the size of your down payment, the number of years you want the note for and the actual price you negotiate for the house.

The next thing you need to do is select an income period. If you typed in what you make annually, then select annual. If you typed in what you make monthly, then select monthly. And so on, and so forth. What you input in as savings in a mortgage calculator should include all of the money that you will have to cover closing costs and also make your down payment. This can also include any gifts that you may receive from relatives. The monthly amount of debt that you input should include such payments as student loans, car loans, mandatory child support, and/or credit card payments.

If you are not so financially constrained with a monthly budget, and prefer to have a lower rate of interest to start, then use an ARM mortgage calculator. This will give you a rough idea of monthly payment over a period of time. ARM do have the distinct disadvantage of putting your home in danger financially should the interest rates rise dramatically. You need to use the mortgage calculator to find out what your optimum interest rate would be before you reached that financial crisis. Make sure that the price of the house you buy gives you quite a large safety net so that the interest rate can rise without danger.

Lastly, when you arrive at the results screen, there will be options that allow you to override some of the parameters you gave in order to recalculate. Included are the minimum required down payment percentage and also other parameters that are not user-specific on the initial screen. The former is beneficial because many people today are purchasing houses with no money down. The results you get from using an online mortgage calculator will most likely not be accurate; however, they can provide you with a firm base from where to begin shopping from. Though it can be a hassle, as well as a bit time consuming, it is always best to consult a lender and get pre-approved for an amount you can afford. In the end, you will have to take this step anyway, but in the beginning a mortgage calculator like Mortgage Rate Calculator can be a great tool that helps you begin the long process of owning a home.

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