The situation
A buyer falls for a house, then finds out the payment also carries taxes, insurance and possibly mortgage insurance, and the number they had in their head was never the number. Most calculators help that along by returning principal and interest and quietly calling it the payment.
There is a second gap that matters more here than most places. A buyer using an ITIN often cannot find their own rate published anywhere, so they arrive at a lender with no idea whether the answer they are given is fair.
What we built
A calculator that answers the whole question, in the order a buyer actually asks it.
- A live rate strip across the top: 30 year fixed, 15 year fixed, FHA, VA and ITIN, pulled and updated rather than typed in once and forgotten
- ITIN carried as a first class rate, not a footnote, because in this market that is not an edge case
- Four questions to a true monthly cost of ownership, with the parts a principal-and-interest figure leaves out put back in
- Five short steps that stay in order: goals, property, loan, results, connect
- Separate starting paths for buying, refinancing and first time buyers, since a first time buyer needs the assistance programs surfaced and a refinancer needs a comparison
- MLS listing search in plain language, so “show me quiet neighborhoods under $400K with good schools” is a valid query
- English and Spanish throughout
- The data limits stated on the page rather than buried: listings currently run on sample MLS records while the live feed is connected
What it does now
A buyer knows their real monthly number before they tour anything, and can search for a house in that range by describing it. The listing-search companion build is Digital Vibes Realty.