Compare Mortgages

When looking for a mortgage, the first thing you do is finding out what mortgage is best for you. The money market is offering you many choices for this. Are you for fixed rate mortgages? How about adjustable rate mortgages? You can have any of these mortgage choices and once you’ve chosen, the next step would be to use mortgage calculators.

Mortgage calculators will help you determine how much you can afford for a mortgage. They will also help you find out what are the monthly payments involved. Because of the significance of mortgage calculators in helping consumers make a choice, several free online mortgage calculators have been steadily cropping up in the Internet.

Free online mortgage calculators because consumers do not spend a single dime on them. Free online mortgage calculators are quick and easy to access. Aside from that, free online mortgage calculators are relatively simple to use. So consumers who wish to find out more about a certain mortgage, using free online mortgage calculators is a step in the right direction.

Free online mortgage calculators have other uses besides those mentioned above. Free online mortgage calculators can be used to evaluate the amount of payments on debt consolidation mortgage loan. Seeing how much your monthly savings would be in a loan can be achieved using free online mortgage calculators.

Refinancing has never been this easy if you use a free online mortgage calculator. Find out how much you can afford to borrow on a new loan and compare the difference using a free online mortgage calculator. Estimate your repayments through a free online mortgage calculator using time scales and interest rates.

The factors involved in getting a loan are numerous. With free online mortgage calculators, you give yourself the guarantee that you are getting the accurate monthly payment figure. Also, with free online mortgage calculators, you can account for all the factors involved in determining the right mortgage for you.

Free online mortgage calculators include a function to help you with your amortization schedule. This function of a free online mortgage calculator will help you find a payment plan that will enable you to make monthly payments on your principal. In this way, free online mortgage calculators can help you gradually reduce your debt at a duration you can accurately determine.

Sites with Free Online Mortgage Calculators

The Internet has several sites that include free online mortgage calculators among their many features. Here are some of them.

Interest.com    - This site features a free online mortgage calculator that will help you answer all the questions you will be asking when shopping for a loan. How much will the monthly payment be? How much can I afford to borrow? These are only a couple of questions that the Interest.com free online mortgage calculator will be able to answer.

MortgageMath.com – This website provides a source for free online mortgage calculators. Some of their free online mortgage calculators include: Simple Mortgage Calculator, Rent vs. Buy Calculator, Financial Calculators, and Amortization Calculators.

Bankrate.com – This site offers a free online mortgage calculator that is fast and easy to use. Their free online mortgage calculator also lets you view your amortization schedules and prepayment savings.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ figures are showing a growing trend in interest only mortgages. From January to March 2002, 9% of new mortgages were interest only. Now take the period from October to December 2005, and the amount of new interest only mortgages has risen to 23%. In the same timeframe, the number of first time buyers choosing interest only mortgages has increased from 6% to 15%.

There’s a good reason for this upturn, and that’s because the monthly payments are so much lower than with a repayment mortgage. All you have to do is pay the interest, delaying the repayment of the capital itself until the end of the mortgage term when it is paid off in full.

Getting an interest only mortgage is an easy way to avoid having to change lifestyle habits like eating out and holidays – and having a mortgage is incredibly affordable this way. However, we think that there could be a lot of people in trouble in the future when they realise that they didn’t start saving soon enough for this eventual lump sum payment.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have voiced concerns about homebuyers potentially getting an interest only mortgage and not making sufficient provisions to pay off the capital, so as a result mortgage lenders have tightened up the rules on interest only mortgages. Now you need to provide proof of an alternative savings fund to cover the capital, before they will agree to lend you the money. The most common ways to save include pensions and ISAs, regular payment schemes that could potentially save more than the capital required. Of course, they may also fall short. The main danger is that the homebuyer will go and cancel the savings plan once the mortgage has been agreed.

If a borrower decides not to save money to cover the capital, the only option would be to sell the home and then buy a home of less value when the time comes to repay the capital. This is not a scenario that the FSA and lenders want to be faced with, especially as property prices cannot be depended on.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s interest only mortgages were very popular – homebuyers would take out an endowment policy to cover the capital repayment at the end of the term. However, we all heard in the news recently about endowment policies under-performing – many borrowers were not able to cover the capital because of an endowment shortfall. They were considered to be a ‘guaranteed’ way of saving, but they did not fulfil their promise. In a similar way, there’s no way to be sure that an investment product will have performed as well as is needed when it comes to paying back the capital in 20 years time.

As people realised that the endowment policies had under-performed, the whole concept of getting an interest only mortgage with a separate savings vehicle fell out of favour, and now repayment mortgages are the norm. But from the recently published statistics mentioned earlier in this article, it looks like the tide may be turning again. For some people it’s the only option. House prices are too high for many people to be able to afford the full repayment mortgage payments.

So it looks like interest only mortgages will be becoming a lot more popular again, but we think that mortgage lenders could do more to help homebuyers see the other options available to them. For example, a mortgage doesn’t have to be over 25 years – the term can be extended to 30 or even 35 years, which would help lower the payments on a repayment mortgage considerably.

A 25-year repayment mortgage of £125,000 at 4.9% will cost £731.69 per month. Stretch the mortgage over 35 years instead, and the monthly payment is £103.53 less at £628.16. That can make the difference between a mortgage being not affordable and affordable.

Many mortgages now offer the option of overpaying when you can. So just because a mortgage is over 35 years, it doesn’t mean it will take 35 years to pay it off. Many homebuyers move house every eight to ten years as well, so the mortgage never needs to run its full course. It’s then a good opportunity to reassess how much you can afford on monthly repayments.

There are other options too, like a mortgage in which you repay half of the capital on repayment, and the rest at the end. It means you get a head start on repaying the capital, and the mortgage can always be renegotiated if you feel you can afford to pay more each month.

Our most serious advice is this – don’t try and make a decision about something as important as a mortgage without getting advice from a professional first. There are a number of solutions so it is always best to get the whole picture from someone who knows the market well.

Some loan officers have had tremendous amount of success buying mortgage leads, while others have wasted tremendous amount of money.  Some of the best lead sources are kept secret – wouldn’t you, if you have found a good lead source?

Surely, it is nice to spend money on mortgage leads that convert well into customers, but buying leads is often a risk not many people are willing to take.  What is even better is to generate your own leads that convert well and are also inexpensive to generate.

Here is one technique that you can use to generate free mortgage leads.  In summary, you want to find online forums and discussion boards that talks about real estate and or mortgages.  You would then register as an user to these forums and establish yourself as a mortgage expert.

Here is how you do it:  Pull up a web browser and head to Google search engine and type in “mortgage forum” and that should give a plenty of online discussion boards related to mortgage.  Before signing up for any of the forums, study the forum topics and see what people are talking about in these forums.  Are they mostly home owners?  Are they mostly real estate professionals like you?  Now, do not disregard mortgage forums where many real estate professionals or loan officers hang out, because sometimes they can be your best mortgage lead source.  Sometimes you will find posts and requests from other loan officers for co-op opportunities.

Once you have come up with a few forums you would then go ahead and register for a forum account.  If you have a website, make sure you put that website in your signature profile if the forums allow – and most of them do.  Here is what not to do:  Do not simply sign up to a forum and start blasting your ad all over!  It may be helpful that you introduce yourself to the discussion board telling people who you are and what services you provide.  Make sure you observe the rules of each forum.  Start breaking into the forum by responding to other people’s posts and provide valuable views and advices.  Once you do that, you establish ground in the forum and you will build a reputation around you.

This technique, although free because you do not need to spend money on advertising, may take a while before you see some qualified leads coming your way.  However, it is probably one of the best inexpensive mortgage leads generation techniques.

There are literally thousands of mortgage brokers out there today. Multiply that by the number that you can find on the Internet, and you will be sure to spend many long hours in front of your computer sifting through them. So, with all the hits that you will get when you search for ‘mortgage brokers’ online, how do you pick one that is right for you and a good company to work with? Here are some ideas to help you out:

1. When searching, try to narrow your search as much as possible. If you are looking for a 30-year, fixed rate, second mortgage for example, put that in the search. This will help you to sort out those companies who do not offer the service that you need. You will immediately get results of companies who do these types of loans and mortgages, so you can start at a smaller place than getting swamped with millions of hits.

2. When looking through the company’s site, go to the ‘about us’ page first. While you might be tempted to look at their services and such, find out about the company before you fill out any forms or offer up any personal information. Some online companies aren’t allowed to provide mortgages for certain states, or they might not be a real company at all, so you are better to find out about them before you give out personal information to someone.

3. While filling out the form, make sure that you check the box or fill in the line that requests a broker to contact you. This will help you to get a one-on-one, personalized service and allow you to ask questions that aren’t on the form or find out information that wasn’t covered on their site.

4. When talking to the broker, make sure to ask every question that you can think of so you are completely comfortable with the broker and the company. If you feel the least bit apprehensive, you should move on to another company.

Basically, just remember to trust your gut feelings when dealing with a mortgage broker. There are so many out there that are great companies, and it really doesn’t take much to find one, you just need to do a little searching to find one online. So, fire up your computer, grab a coke, and start typing away. You are sure to come up with a list of companies that you are completely comfortable with and have that new mortgage secured in no time!