Figuring Out How Much You Can Afford
In taking out any loan, you jump through several hoops to get it approved and closed, particularly when it comes to FHA loans. However, just because a lender gives approval, that still doesn’t mean taking out that loan is best for you. No matter what you technically qualify for, you need to figure out your personal finances and financial future for yourself to see if you would be satisfied with the loan terms in the coming years. No one understands your life like you do. And that is why it is so important to use a mortgage calculator to plug in numbers for yourself. But the mortgage calculator can be used for much more than just determining monthly payments on a particular loan.
Calculating and Recalculating
What goes into a mortgage calculator and what comes out? All calculators break things down a little differently, but they all take multiple costs into account to show what you’ll be paying each month into principal and interest.
Some things you plug in:
interest rates
APR
insurance
total lended amount
predicted real estate taxes
term length
What comes out:
PI (principal and interest)
TI (taxes and insurance)
OR
PITI (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance)
Some sites add up even more than what’s on this list, and with FHA loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration, that list may be even longer. FHA loans come with many benefits that make them appealing alternatives to traditional loans. However, with these differing costs, it will probably work in your favor to use a calculator specifically designed to factor FHA mortgages.
Like I said above, you aren’t limited to just calculating monthly payments. Try comparing a fixed-rate mortgage against an adjustable one to see which would benefit you more in the long run. An ARM might seem appealing at first, but the benefits may not make up for the risks after a few years, and it’s easy to see how this plays out with a mortgage calculator.
You can also determine how much equity you’ll have at key points in the future. When you reach the 20 percent equity mark, you can actually wave PMI, making your payments even lower.
In addition to this, you can also determine what will happen if you pay more into principal than is required. Paying more into principal usually shortens the length of the loan, and paying off your loan significantly earlier than you initially anticipated can only be a good thing, right?
Getting Accurate Rate Quotes
The home loan calculator allows you to plan out your future with more accuracy but nothing will replace talking with a certified loan officer. You can plan and calculate until you’re blue in the face, but the terms that a loan officer produces will be the ones the lender actually extends to you. He or she will take into account your income, the house being financed, the area you live in, and about a thousand other factors. Loan officers are like human mortgage calculators that offer an essential amount of expertise that online calculators cannot, so even though they won’t know your situation perfectly, they can offer a lot of insight.
Plan your future today by checking out our mortgage loan calculator. We want to provide you with any tool you need to find security in your home loan.