Watch Out For These Mistakes When You Invest

Mortgage applications continue to rise as the interest rates drop at its lowest this year since September. Usually, this last month of the year is the slowest for the housing market, however, lenders are getting busier because of the 1.6 percent increase in application.

Experts from the Mortgage Bankers Association believe that this is actually something that the people are taking advantage of since no one would want to apply for a mortgage if the interest rates are incredibly high. However, people often wonder how exactly do mortgage calculators work. It turns out that there is a time the calculation doesn’t always seem to be fair or to be on your side without you knowing.

Understanding The Mortgage Calculator

Some people usually find their dream homes so quickly since they are afraid that mortgage interests while suddenly go so high that they will miss the chance. Since they are somewhat in a hurry, people would often go to mortgage calculators online that are usually offered by real estates websites as well as other finance sites.

According to a certified financial planner Bob Harkson, most of the online mortgage calculators that are offered to be used online usually fall short when it comes to giving accurate information when it comes to estimating the amount that you need to pay.

Other experts even agree that some of these mortgage calculators that people can access too online aren’t accurate. That is because they often leave out some of the important costs such as taxes, insurance, utilities, and other general maintenance that must be included.

One major thing that these type of calculators don’t include is the property taxes since usually an online mortgage calculator only has three inputs which are the mortgage amount, interest rate, and the number of years you’ll pay it for. Property taxes alone are not exactly all the time since they usually depend on the local tax rates, but they are most likely a few thousand annually, which is an addition to the monthly mortgage payment.

It can be really complicated when you get in depth to it, that is why everyone knows it can be really tough to be a homeowner since getting a home itself is already difficult enough. According to experts, a mortgage calculator must be able to help you figure out how much you have to pay for your home, that includes the down payment and how many years are you willing to pay for it. This must also include the current interest rate, this will usually depend on the credit rating and the current rate in the economy.

Mortgage Calculator Problems

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there are two major problems with online mortgage calculators. One of them is that it usually consider the principal and interest payment which is not the only important payments that must be included, as well as only being accurate if you provide ample information. The principal payment that it considers is actually the amount that you owe in your loan, while the interest is the amount that the lender charges once your loan.

Mortgage calculators may only give you certain information based on the information that you have provided, hence it is not exactly that helpful if you look at it in a bigger picture. The PMI for instance, which is the private mortgage insurance needs to be included together with the association fees that the homeowner has since that will gov enough the idea of how much you need to pay each month.

Mortgage calculators only rely on the user’s indicted amount hence it is referred to as a calculator. There are also closing costs that you might need to pay beforehand which is normally up to 5 percent of the price of the house.

One of the most popular real estate websites in the country, Zillow, has been looking for ways on how exactly they will be able to include all the necessary payments to help out homeowners. They even introduced a new site that may serve as a pricing tool for monthly expenses on the mortgage which includes the utilities that are usually left out, and through a location data, it can be calculated for every property. Experts believe that many buyers usually exceed their initial budget after being misled by the mortgage calculator.