How to plan and calculate loan for building a home?

I recently paid my car off and I have good credit. Not the best score, but good. I have some money saved up and live on good size farm, but I don't want to sell my land that I lease out. Plus I do have a full time job and get some money monthly for rental property--little income there. My current home is paid off--inherited and I plan to rent it out as well. I want to build a home on my farm. I am just not sure of the how to go about calculating and knowing the interest rate and all that and to know if my down payment would be adequate. Sorry, but I am clueless to this process. I tried doing an online mortage calculator, but then at the end, I had to give information to get different lender's offers. I really just want to do this myself to get an idea. Do I have to go to my bank first or is there a way to do this without contacting them first and not giving personal information to other lenders online? I think I would want a fixed rate, but I don't know the interest rates.

How to plan and calculate loan for building a home?

Use the online mortgage calculator to simply get a vague idea of what you payments would be with different loan terms so you know how much house you can actually afford based on your income and expenses, future spending plans etc. Bear in mind that as long as you have even average credit, lenders will often allow you to get loans with a principle so high that in practice would probably be impossible to make the monthly payments on. Decide what house plans you want to build and get estimates from builders so you can get a firm idea of exactly what they expect it to cost, then add 5-10% for cost overruns or changes that make during construction. Next, try lendingtree.com because there you fill out one set of information and lenders can compete for your loan. If you don't like that then check the mortgage rates that are printed in local newspapers. Then maybe go to some banks in person and see what they offer for rates and terms. If any deals seem too good to be true then they probably are. The loan principle will probably be paid to you in one lump sum but the expenses for building a home will be spread out over months before it is completed so you will want to put the money into a high yield account like a 3% or more so that at least you could make a little bit back on whatever you haven't spent so far. We shopped around and ended up using ditech.com through their online interface when we refinanced and it has been fine. Research all you can so you know what you are getting into and what the terms mean. Don't be afraid to ask the lender any questions at all or to explain anything, they give loans based on you credit score which has nothing to do with what questions you ask. If they can't or won't answer your questions then stop and go somewhere else. Lenders are dying to get loans, that is their business just like walmart sells merchandise they loan money.

How to plan and calculate loan for building a home?

The lady is *not* willing to give her information to different lenders, yet the gentleman is talking about lendingtree who would definitely *give* her information to get lender's offers.

See: 'Is Lendingtree a good place to shop for mortgage?' (a Yahoo! Answer)

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Please be advised that learning how to shop for a mortgage, using free mortgage calculators, researching the interest rates online, and acquiring a basic knowledge about mortgage financing is possible without giving personal information to other lenders online.

The Mortgage-X Calculators web page is easily findable and in addition to their own Calculators is linked to the Mortgage Professor's Calculators (plus FinanCenter Calculators).

Both sites mentioned below offer a wide variety of powerful tools, calculators and about 1000 articles covering all aspects of the mortgage lending field to help borrowers make informed financial decisions.