Most Finance Websites have a Mortgage Calculator/Home Loan Calculator, from the very basic to the somewhat elaborate. When using this type of resource there is one important rule you must observe – it is a guide only. You need to speak with a professional before relying on the information.
Mortgage Calculators assist you and give you a general overview of what may be possible but they don’t look at your specific circumstances.
Most Home Loan Calculators where you look to “How Much Can I Borrow?” use a base line for a person’s personal expenditure. The HEM (Household Expenditure Measure), this may not reflect your lifestyle expense and so give you an overstated borrowing capacity.
Mortgage calculators do not look at your savings record to assess if the Lender/Bank will deem the savings “genuine”, non-genuine savings may not taken into account in an actual application for finance.
The Interest Rates that Home Loan/Mortgage calculators use to calculate your repayment amount are a set default and vary from site to site, and as some websites are set and forget the default rate may in fact be very out of date.
It is very easy to look at the cheapest rate and say “we can afford that”, you should also look at what a repayment would be at 2 or 3 percent higher than the rates on offer from Lenders. Australia has been in a very low interest rate environment for a long time. Interest rates will go up at some point, it is better to prepare than caught unaware.
If there are Fees and Costs Calculators on a site, again these should considered a guide only. Your local Real Estate Home Loans Broker can confirm what the likely fees and charges associated with your specific transaction are. Feel free to contact us to run through your specific scenario.
Mortgage Calculators and Home Loan calculators are a great resource yet they are a general guide only. Make sure you confirm with you Mortgage Broker what the numbers are specific to your situation before embarking on your dream buy.
