Do you want to buy a home as a first-time homebuyer? Then, an FHA loan will be the right choice for you. The FHA or better known as the Federal Housing Administration guarantees the loan while the FHA-approved lenders offer this.
However, before you apply for the loan, you may like to know how much home you can qualify for? This is where the importance of an FHA loan calculator Texas comes. But to use the calculator and get a proper result, you have to give some inputs. Here are the ones –
1. Down payment
When it comes to a down payment for a traditional home loan, the general requirement is 20%. But it differs when you opt for government-backed home loan programs, especially an FHA loan. With a good credit score, you can get approval for an FHA loan with as low as a 3.5% credit score. However, the decent the amount for your down payment, the better your chances for approval will be. Besides, the down payment requirement varies from a lender to another one. As you can get down payment assistance for an FHA loan, it is always better to come with a score. So, decide the amount of your down payment and enter it to the calculator.
2. Home price
The home price depends on four things – your income, monthly debt payment, credit score, and down payment savings. When go for buying a home, you may hear that there is a percentage rule, and it is 36%. This means that you should aim to have a debt-to-income (DTI) ratio of about 36% percent when applying for a mortgage loan. The ratio will help your lender understand your financial capacity in order to pay your mortgage each month. The higher the ratio would be the less likely you can afford the mortgage. So, you should try to maintain a lower ratio.
3. Interest rate
The interest rate, also known as a mortgage rate, is the rate of interest that you pay over the life of the loan. When you will go through the preapproval process, an FHA-approved lender will offer you a rate, you can use that rate. But if you don’t have any idea of what you would qualify for, you can enter a probable rate through the existing rate trend that you got on the mortgage page of your lender. And you should always keep this in mind that there are diverse factors, including your credit score and the debt-to-income ratio that contribute to deciding the mortgage rate.
4. Loan term
It is the duration of your FHA home loan. It can be 10, 15, 30, or something else. Check the advantages of various loan terms and then determine which one will be suitable for you.
So, these are the basic inputs that you have to give to an FHA mortgage calculator. Give the inputs and know your home affordability.