Mortgage Information & Calculator
After choosing your realtor®, the next step would be to choose your mortgage
broker/lender to get pre-approved. A pre-approval letter is submitted with
all offers and allows you to not only be prepared when your perfect home is
found, but allows you and your realtor to look for homes and ultimately
purchase a home in a price range that you can afford and be comfortable
with. A good mortgage broker, like a good realtor is imperative in guiding
you in the mortgage process and helping you with the most important purchase
you'll ever make. An inexperienced or just plain bad mortgage
company/broker, like a bad realtor, will cost you time, money and a lot of
aggravation.
I recommend only a select few mortgage brokers that I work with and I am
always assured that my clients will be in the very best of hands regarding
their mortgage.
Property taxes in Texas should be calculated at approximately 2.5-3% of the
appraised value of the home and the appraised value should ideally be lower than
the market value. I'm often asked why the property taxes in Texas are higher
than in many states. I don't have an answer but we do NOT have any state
income tax so I suppose it all evens out!
The good news is that you will be entitled to a 20% discount on your
property taxes when you file for a "homestead" exemption. The homestead
exemption can be used if the home is your primary residence and you
purchased the home on or after January 1 of any given year. Questions?
please contact me and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Below is a mortgage calculator that will help you find out what your
payments will be. For more info on Mortgage terms, click here for the
Mortgage Dictionary
This mortgage calculator can be used to figure out monthly payments of a home mortgage loan, based on the home's sale price, the term of the loan desired, buyer's down payment percentage, and the loan's interest rate. This calculator factors in PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) for loans where less than 20% is put as a down payment. Also taken into consideration are the town property taxes, and their effect on the total monthly mortgage payment.