Realtor.com and personal finance site Bankrate Inc. have partnered to create a free iPhone and Android mobile app that helps homebuyers search for homes on realtor.com that fall within their target home price range and potential mortgage payment.
The app includes a mortgage calculator that incorporates interest rates, personal mortgage insurance, and local tax and insurance rates to give homebuyers a sense of how much home they can afford with estimated monthly mortgage payments.
The app also presents consumers with personalized mortgage rate loan options from different lenders and allows them to sort rates by lowest annual percentage rate, interest rate, fees or monthly payments.
Realtor.com competitors Zillow and Trulia offer mortgage mobile apps that include home affordability calculators, giving consumers the opportunity to connect with lenders and see potential monthly mortgage payments.
Planwise, a personal finance startup, recently pivoted to provide a similar tool that brokers, agents and portals can embed on their websites. The firm’s founder and CEO, Vincent Turner, envisions the tool as a way to bring mortgage rate info to the home search process by giving consumers access to real-time mortgage estimates from partner lenders.