How to compare two mortgage offers

Put each lender’s note rate and APR on the same loan amount and term. The cheaper offer is fees plus interest over the years you plan to keep it.

Use one house

Type the price, down payment, and term once. Then enter offer A and offer B as a note rate and an APR each. Both offers borrow the same dollars for the same number of months.

If the lenders quoted different loan amounts because one rolled fees in, this comparison will not match that quote. Here, fees stay up front.

Set the hold

The hold is how long you keep the loan before you sell or refinance. Interest is summed only through those months. A seven-year hold ignores the interest you would have paid in years eight through thirty.

The story also shows the monthly gap and the fee gap, so you can see a lower payment that still loses on total cost.

A tie is a tie

If the two costs are within a dollar, the comparison calls it a tie. Chasing a smaller gap than that is noise in the fee estimate.

Run the numbers again if you change the down payment. A smaller loan changes both payments and the dollar size of the APR fee.

This explains how WiseCalculator treats the numbers you type. It is not a lender’s offer and it is not advice for your loan.