It seems like a long time ago that someone wishing to purchase a home simply walked into a lender’s office, started the process by providing some basic information, and walked out with a figure that represented the monthly mortgage payment.
Times have changed, thanks to the technology that allows individuals to do much of the figuring for themselves. No longer do they have to depend solely on the numbers provided by the one or two lenders they could visit in their town. Now, when a property owner is thinking about buying a new home or refinancing the mortgage on a current home, he or she can use an online calculator to put the information at his or her fingertips.
Comparison Shopping
Perhaps the key benefit of this technology is that it provides the opportunity to compare loan options, which means making smarter choices on everything financial. Here are a few examples of what you can accomplish on your own with a reliable online mortgage payment calculator:
- Monthly payment amount
- Total interest for the entire loan
- The effect of different interest rates
- Which type of mortgage would be best
- Whether you should refinance or stay with what you have
You can use technology to determine basic items such as the monthly payment you will make based on different principal amounts and various interest rates. You can determine whether you should buy a particular property, choose another, or if you should just rent. When you do a few basic calculations you could determine which path is best at this time in your life.
You can calculate the numbers for refinancing your current property and even determine points that you may want to pay up front to lower your monthly amount. With some online calculator programs, you can even figure out how much making extra payments will affect your loan.
Basic Information Required
When you are ready to try a mortgage calculator, be sure you have some basic information at hand including the loan amount (or total you want to refinance), the interest rate, and the number of years over which you will repay the loan (the term). Of course, you can input different amounts for each of these areas to do some comparison shopping at your leisure.
If the calculator you will use is for a specific purpose, you will probably realise that at the start. This is especially true for refinancing where you will need the original loan amount and rate, along with some idea of how you want to refinance. You can make an educated guess and fine tune the numbers as you go.
When you go through the process, pay particular attention to the monthly cost, the total cost over the full period of the loan, and what is called the break-even point. A good calculator can show when the amount you save equals the money that you had to spend to get the loan in the first place.
If you plan to use this method to become more informed, you should still talk with someone about your plans and the numbers to make sure they will work for you.
