Private Mortgage Insurance Calculator
Mortgage calculators are tools that allow you to estimate your monthly payments on a fixed rate mortgage, calculate your total cost of borrowing and even give you an approximation of the size of mortgage that you can afford.
A basic mortgage calculator will take the sale price of the home, the size of the down payment, the length or term of the mortgage and the annual interest rate to come up with an estimation of your monthly payments.
A good mortgage calculator will also include the cost of private mortgage insurance (PMI) for down payments that are less than 20% of the sale cost.
Use A Mortgage Calculator To Guide Your Home Equity Loan Decision
Refinancing your home is a major step, but as with a first mortgage this is the only claim on your property. If you take out a home equity loan instead, then you will have an additional lender who has a financial stake in your home. If you decide that you much prefer the terms on the home equity loan, and the mortgage calculator seems to bring it well within your budget, then make sure you read the small print carefully.
You need to know what the payments are for: are they just interest which will leave a large capital balance payable at a later date, for example? Make sure you can afford these additional monthly payments.
Here are a few don’ts that will help you in the long run:
* Don’t lie to yourself or your mortgage calculator.
* Don’t over-estimate your income under any circumstances; treat overtime money as “extra” if possible, and not part of your usual salary.
*Don’t over-estimate the equity in your home in the mortgage calculator. This can lead to false hopes which your property appraiser will quickly dispel.
If you are hoping to use the released capital to make home improvements, these should add value to your property. Look into this carefully to find out approximately how much you’ll be increasing your property’s value before committing to either the loan or having the work carried out. Failure to carry out the work means you are still responsible for the loan, but that you have not created any new equity.