There are a variety of mortgage calculators widely available on the Internet and through other sources that can tell a consumer everything from the type of house that can be purchased or the size of payments that can be expected. However, these mortgage calculators do not have to strictly come into play when a home is the large purchase being wrapped into a mortgage.
Indeed, the practice of including other outside items in a mortgage amount has grown in popularity, much of it due to the fact that more refinances are pushed through today than ever before. These refinance options, especially during the extremely low interest periods seen a year or two ago, gave consumers the ability to wrap car loans and other non-home related payments into a single mortgage at a newly lowered rate.
For many consumers, going through a refinance that combines payments either makes sense from a simplicity point of view or makes sense from a cost point of view. Usually, when action is taken, most refinances that are pushed through this way satisfy both of those requirements and calculating for yourself the difference that you might be able to see in your combined monthly payments can be simple and very useful.
Of course, the success or failure of these methods to save you money now or save money over the long term depend largely on the interest rates offered in your particular area and through the financial institution you are predisposed to choose. If interest rates for some reason skyrocket in the near future, you will either be glad you locked in a rate or regret you didn't. The same can be said for lower interest rates as well.
Paying off a car payment, for example, is very similar to a home closing in function. If you decide to wrap your car payment into your mortgage, the lending agency that manages your mortgage will make a payment in full for the balance of the loan on your car. The lending agency that financed your car is then out of the picture and walks away with a fully paid-off loan.
Your mortgage agency then either amends your current mortgage or reissues an entirely new mortgage that covers the amount left to pay on your home and the amount left to pay on your car in one lump sum with a common monthly payment. Sometimes there are incentives to do this, as the bank will see greater interest payments off of the loan and will reap money on loan amounts they didn't previously have, but not in all situations.
Sometimes a calculator is necessary for deciding whether this is feasible because closing costs and other fees make it more complicated than simply seeing a lower interest rate and jumping on it. With a fixed-rate loan, the bulk of the cost is made up of interest payments each month, but closing costs initially, and especially if there is not a lot left to pay on either the mortgage or car payment, can greatly influence the savings.
To investigate, you will simply have to do the math and calculate what is left on the interest portion of your car at its current interest rate and then calculate what that total would be either at your current mortgage interest rate or the rate you will be able to refinance at. If the difference accounts for closing costs and fees charged by your lending agency, you should go through with it and simply your life while saving some money at the same time.
This will not work for every consumer in every location, but for many, consolidating payments and locking in a new, lower interest rate can make a great amount of sense. To find out, do the math and complete your homework before expending too much energy hunting down the possibility.
This is another original article by Joe Lane, co-owner of The Lane Real Estate Team at http://www.joelane.com/. Are you looking for an experienced Tri City WA Real Estate agency? With 20 years of service based, business experience, Joe and Colleen Lane work hard to serve home buyers and sellers for the Tri Cities of Washington's Kennewick, Richland, Pasco, and surrounding areas.
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