Choose Your Terms with a Mortgage Rate Calculator

When you enter the real estate market to buy a home, it is a good idea to know in advance how much purchasing power you have. Rather than be turned down for a home that is out of your price range, do your homework first. Go on line and find a mortgage rate calculator to find out exactly what your payments will be and how much money you are paying back with interest.

The mortgage rate calculator is a wonderful tool; you can not only calculate your loan, but you can also calculate your start and end date. You can calculate the exact date that you will pay off your loan. The mortgage rate calculator is found on many lending websites. You plug in all your criteria, such as your monthly income, the price of the home or property you want to buy, and any other debt that you owe.

You can calculate the payoff date of your loan with the mortgage rate calculator, but many lending institutions allow you to pay your mortgage note off early. You can pay your note off by making extra payments into the principal of the loan, which brings down not only the amount owed, but also brings down the interest rate in many cases.

With the mortgage rate calculator you can determine the kind of loan you want. If you want a 15 year mortgage at 8.5 percent interest, you can plug those numbers into the mortgage rate calculator and determine the monthly payments and the date you will pay off the loan. The same goes for if you decide you want to opt for a mortgage with a longer term. If the interest rate remains the same over a 30 year note, you may be making lower payments each month, but you have acquired more debt than if you opted for the shorter note with higher payments. Paying on a house for 30 years may not be what you want to do, so opting for the shorter mortgage term will save you many thousands of dollars.

The mortgage rate calculator allows you to calculate your loan with fixed interest rate or with adjustable interest rates, which will have an effect on what your monthly payments will be each month. While with a fixed interest rate, your mortgage payment will remain the same, while with an adjustable interest rate the monthly payment may change as the interest rate changes. The lending company will make adjustments from time to time when the interest rate goes up or down. The adjustable mortgage rate is more commonly known as ARM (adjustable rate mortgage).

Buying a home can be one of the most exciting times in your life. Being proactive in determining the type of loan you want with the terms you want will help you negotiate your loan. Using the mortgage rate calculator can be an empowering experience, because you know in advance the payments you can afford and the terms you can live with.