Home buyers are always told they should do plenty of shopping for a home loan. In fact, the federal loan estimate closing document that was introduced last year that supplanted the Good Faith Estimate document of years past was created to encourage home buyers to shop for loans before the signed the dotted line and finalized the mortgage.
Now there are many mobile tools and home loan apps that you can use to make it easier to shop for loans and buy your dream home. Check them out:
#1 Rate My Rate by eLend
Rate My Rate is a mobile tool that was launched last year by American Financial Resources. Borrowers can use it to compare a loan estimate from a lender with other offers from other lenders who participate on the eLend platform. This is one of the many reasons that eLend is capturing so much market-share in 2017.
Rate My Tool can read the data that is on your loan estimate form and run it through the system on eLend to compare the current rates in various loan programs:
- Cost of the loan over five years
- Amount of principal paid in five years
- APR
- Total interest percentage
- Total cost of the loan
#2 Mortgage Calculator by Quicken Loans
If you want to be able to crunch numbers on the go, you can’t go wrong with Mortgage Calculator by Quicken Loans. This is a very easy to use mobile app where you can estimate the amount of the loan, the rate, and term or monthly payments with just a few taps.
Quicken Loans is the top lender online in the US, and it recently launched Rocket Mortgage, where many borrowers can reduce the mortgage application process down to just eight minutes.
Rocket Mortgage allows the borrower to lock in the rate and submit application documents quickly online. Then the lender goes to work on getting a fast approval.
#3 Homes.com Mortgage App
The Homes.com Mortgage app has been built to be a lot more than just a payment calculator. It has been designed to be a comprehensive tool that is useful for the first-time home buyer as well as seasoned home buyers. The tool can be used to figure out what your monthly payments will be with various loan options. You also can easily check if you will save money by doing a refinance, and also research the many differences between a fixed and adjustable rate loan.
Other attractive aspects of this free mobile tool for home loans and real estate:
- Find detailed financial advice for first time home buyers
- Use payment calculator to crunch all of the essential numbers
- Learn about your different mortgage rate and payment options
- Get pre qualified for a mortgage loan
- Organize all of your finances easily
- Discover if you can save money by buying versus renting
- Check various mortgage insurance rate options
#4 Nerdwallet Mortgage Calculator
Nerdwallet features a simple mortgage calculator that is available both on PC and on smart phones. This free mortgage calculator helps you to quickly estimate mortgage payments each month, as well as principal, interest, taxes, insurance and PMI.
#5 Zillow Mortgage Calculator
Zillow also offers a great, simple mortgage calculator that you can use to easily determine your payment, taxes and insurance on your possible home loan. All you need to do is to enter the home price, down payment, and various details to get the full report on what your home will cost you now, each month and in the future.
Note: Zillow also offers these related calculators that will be very useful for many people shopping for a home and a home loan:
- Affordability calculator
- Refinance calculator
- Debt to income calculator
- VA mortgage calculator
#6 Wells Fargo Mortgage Rate and Payment Calculator
Wells Fargo features a mortgage rate and payment calculator that can be very helpful during your home buying and mortgage hunting process.
#7 MortgageCalculator.net
Anyone who is planning to get a home loan soon will be wondering about the many options that are available for home financing. Mortgages come in many varieties and prices. It can be confusing for many of us to find the best option for our price range, credit score and budget. To get the best possible rate, you should use the mortgage calculator offered by Mortgage Calculator.
This simple calculator allows you to enter all of the vital information that you need to make a decision:
- Amount of mortgage
- Amortization period
- Interest term
- Interest type
- Rate
- Start date
- Payment period
The Bottom Line on Mobile Mortgage Apps and Tools
Most real estate and finance experts will tell you that the mortgage approval process is in some ways more important than the actual home that you buy. So much of your financial future will depend upon the type of mortgage that you select, such as the interest rate, down payment, loan term, fixed or adjustable, mortgage insurance, taxes, etc. It will always benefit you to do a lot of research with some of the above free mobile tools for your next home loan.
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About RefiGuide
Bryan Dornan is a financial journalist and currently serves as Chief Editor of RefiGuide.org. Bryan has founded several mortgage and marketing companies and has worked as a loan officer and mortgage broker in the industry for over 25 years and has a wealth of experience in providing mortgage clients with the highest level of service in the industry. Bryan's continual focus is to promote affordable home-ownership to consumers like you across the United States. He also writes for RealtyTimes, Patch, Buzzfeed, Medium and other national publications. Find him on Twitter, Muckrack, and Linkedin
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