Most folks think of the Microsoft Office Suite as something you you have to use at work and perhaps they use it for personal correspondence at home as well. Of course, there are some savvy computer enthusiasts who also use it for myriad purposes, as it was intended.
One very useful program in the Office Suite is Excel. It is a very powerful and robust piece of software that can be very helpful in ways that you may not have thought of, such as helping you when you are house shopping. Yes, that's right!
First, you will need to have your existing or potential loan information available.
Secondly, you need a computer with MS Excel installed.
In this article, I will teach you how to create a Mortgage Calculator in MS Excel. Follow the steps below to learn how:
- Launch MS Excel if it is not already open.
- Open a blank workbook.
- On the worksheet, key in the following information into any cell: =PMT(6.7%/12,30*12,195000.
- Replace the interest rate with your loan information.
- If you press the Enter key after keying in the formula above, you should be able to edit the formula from the formula bar as long as the cell you keyed the formula into is selected.
- Replace 30 with your loan term. Most standard loan terms are commonly 15 or 30 years, but 20 and 25 year loan terms are also available.
- Replace 195000 with the total amount of your loan.
- Press Enter and your total payment will be displayed.
- The payment figure will be displayed in red and parentheses because that figure designates money owed.
- Add property tax, insurance and other fees to the amount in parentheses for a realistic estimate of the associated fees you will need to pay every month.
Pretty slick eh? Now you will be prepared when you start house hunting!
Carol Bratt is the Office Applications Editor at Daves Computer Tips. She has authored several informative Microsoft Office books and writes the monthly Word Bytes Newsletter with more tips and tricks in each issue. Visit Carol's website for more great Microsoft Office tips and tricks! Click here to see her latest books! You can read more about Carol here.