Dean Shainin asked:


Getting yourself a home loan calculator is the first step you need to take if you want to get the best type of loan. Many homebuyers however do not realize this is an important first step - and they make the mistake of going ahead and look at houses for sale and talk to realtors without getting a home loan calculator first.

Why is it important to consult with your home loan calculator first and foremost?

The amount of money you have available for down payment impacts on all aspects of buying a home, namely how you write your purchase offer and the home loan programs you qualify for. A home loan calculator is a very useful tool which tells you what you can afford, which you need to know before you start to look for your dream home.

Use A Home Loan Calculator To Decide Upon The Right Mortgage Programs

With the home loan calculators, you will be able to know if you will have enough available for a minimum down payment. This is important because some home loan programs are limited to only a few types of mortgages. If you have enough for a down payment, but need the lender or seller to cover all or part of your closing costs, this further limit your options and it is important for you to know this in advance before you start talking to the homes sellers or realtors.

If you intend to borrow all or a part of the down payment from your 401K or retirement plan, different loan programs have different rules on how you qualify. If a potential borrower has enough money for a large down payment, then they have a lot of options.

Conventional fixed rate loans, adjustable rate mortgages, buy-downs, VA, FHA and graduated payment mortgages are the varied programs of home loan choices.

Before You Write Your Offer, Use Your Home Loan Calculator

How you write your offer to purchase a home depends on your down payment, thus making it important that you use the home loan calculator first. In addition, it is important for you establish the amount of the monthly mortgage payment you can comfortably afford subject to the home loan you intend to take.

What does the loan program you are intending to take allow? Can you ask the seller to pay all or part of the closing costs? For instance, for smaller down payments, lenders allow the seller to pay less closing costs than for larger down payments. The type of costs which the seller is allowed to pay varies by home loan programs. It is important for you to know all this information before you write an offer.

The amount of your down payment also affects your ability to qualify for a loan. The more down payment you have, the more flexible and accommodating lenders tend to be. On the other hand, with small down payment, lenders tend to be strict about having you conform to their underwriting guidelines.

Based on the various factors discussed above, you can appreciate how important it is for you to use your home loan calculator when deciding on a mortgage loan.

anonymous asked:


In fact, the mortgage loan calculator, based on the data provided by you, can suggest the loan that will best suit your requirements. The data you need to provide may include factors such as the time you would require to repay the loan or whether you would like to include the payment protection insurance. Based on this data, the mortgage loans calculator will also compute your monthly repayment installments.

Payment Protection Insurance

Payment protection insurance, as the name suggests, covers your loan repayments in the case of unexpected eventuality like sickness, accident, death, unemployment, and so on. The amount you are charged as payment protection insurance varies from lender to lender and also depends upon the amount of loan, which you wish to take. Payment Protection Insurance is a costly affair. It may almost double your amount of loan. In some cases it can also be added to your loan amount and in such a situation, you will have to pay interest on both the loan and the insurance cover. It is here that the mortgage loan calculator comes to the help of the borrowers as it enables them to make an accurate decision.

Advantages of a Mortgage loan calculator

Mortgage loan calculator also helps the borrowers to do a comparative study of the various loan options available in the market. It may be noted that the Payment Protection Insurance is an optional liability in the loans, which many lenders do not disclose to the borrowers. Moreover the mortgage calculator can also compare the other options to PPI, which may be procured from the relevant sources in various countries. In UK, for example, enquires can be made from the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA).

Mortgage loan calculator also helps to decide the suitability of a loan in context of your credit history reports, county court judgments, and so on.

It also calculates the APR for each personal loan. A borrower has to make many upfront payments such as application and evaluation fees, closing costs, and administrative charges on every change in interest rate plan, legal counseling expenses, and so on. Usually the borrowers take into account their interest payment when calculating the overall annual costs of loans, which is what the APR is about.

A lender’s APR is used with a system called risk based pricing. This means that the lenders assess each borrower’s circumstances and credit history for deciding the rate of the mortgage loan. All this mathematics is beyond the understanding of an ordinary borrower and the mortgage loan calculator performs the task in a matter of minutes. The calculator takes into account the monthly payments of all the loans in the market and then lists them in the results table keeping the cheapest monthly repayment at the top. It may also use a different criteria depending upon the nature of the loan.

Besides these, the mortgage calculators may also take into account your current income, the debt liabilities and interest rates to determine the amount of loan that you can borrow.

Then there are other important calculations to be made. You need to calculate the monthly repayments according to type of interest you opt for. For example, you may apply for interest only mortgage. For this, you agree to pay a fixed rate of interest for a stipulated period after the expiry of which you may switch on to flexible interest rate. You may also like to pay a part of your principal amount, which may increase your repayment installments substantially.

A mortgage loan calculator also helps you decide whether it would be more advisable for you to buy a home or rent one considering your peculiar financial circumstances taking into account all the costs, tax implications and so on.