Free Tools
Twelve calculators covering every stage of buying, selling, refinancing, and investing in Houston real estate — built to help you understand your own numbers before you're sitting across from a lender.
Buyer Tool
Play with the numbers to get a feel for what a home in your target range actually costs each month. This is a planning tool, not a loan quote — your real rate and payment depend on your lender, credit, and the specific property, so treat this as a starting point for the conversation, not the final word.
Estimated Monthly Payment
Ready to see what this looks like with a real, personalized rate? My preferred lenders can run actual numbers with you, no obligation.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer & Seller Tools
Every one of these is a planning tool, not a loan quote or guaranteed return — the point is to get a real feel for the numbers before you're sitting across from a lender or making a decision under pressure. Jump straight to the one you need:
Buyer Tool
This works backward from your income and monthly debts to estimate a realistic purchase price — the number a lender is likely to actually approve, not just a number that sounds nice.
Estimated ongoing costs, as a % of home price per year
Estimated Affordable Home Price
This tells you what a lender's math is likely to allow — it doesn't tell you what actually fits your life. Those aren't always the same number, and that conversation is one I'm always happy to have before you start touring homes.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer Tool
Two ways to run this, depending on which number you already know.
Home Price You Can Reach
Cash You'll Need at Closing
Under 20% down almost always means PMI gets added to your monthly payment — worth planning for, not a surprise at closing.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer Tool
Two lenders can quote the same interest rate and still cost you differently once fees and points are in the mix. APR bakes those costs in, which makes it the more honest number to compare offers with — not the rate itself.
Real APR
If two lenders quote you the same rate but different APRs, the one with the lower APR is genuinely cheaper — even though the "rate" on the sign looks identical.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer Tool
FHA loans allow down payments as low as 3.5%, but they come with mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) that a conventional loan doesn't have — this shows you the real all-in monthly cost, upfront MIP included.
Ongoing costs
Total Monthly Payment
Unlike PMI on a conventional loan, FHA's annual MIP typically doesn't cancel automatically on most 30-year loans — that's worth weighing against a conventional loan's lower down payment options with a lender directly.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer Tool · Veterans & Service Members
VA loans allow $0 down and skip monthly mortgage insurance entirely — but there's a one-time funding fee to account for, and it varies based on your down payment and whether this is your first time using the benefit. Rates current as of 2026.
Ongoing costs (VA loans require no monthly mortgage insurance)
Total Monthly Payment
Thank you for your service. If you're relocating on PCS orders, my medical and military relocation clients get the same hands-on approach — happy to talk through timing around your move.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer & Homeowner Tool
See exactly how a fixed-rate loan pays down year by year — useful for understanding how much of your early payments go to interest versus principal, and how that shifts over time.
Monthly Payment
| Year | Interest | Principal | Ending Balance |
|---|
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Homeowner Tool
A fixed lump-sum loan against your home's equity — useful for one-time costs like buying out a spouse's share, funding renovations, or consolidating debt at a lower rate than most alternatives.
Monthly Payment
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Homeowner Tool · Divorce & Post-Divorce
Whether you're refinancing to lower your rate, buy out a former spouse's equity, or pull cash out, this shows what changes — and how many months it takes for the savings to actually cover the cost of refinancing.
Your Current Loan
New Loan
Current Loan
New Loan
Monthly Savings / Break-Even
In a divorce buyout specifically, this is usually the number that determines whether keeping the house is actually workable on one income — worth running before that decision gets made, not after.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Renter Tool · Medical Relocation
A quick gut-check before you start touring — especially useful if you're relocating and renting for the first year while you learn the city.
Comfortable Monthly Rent
Most landlords and property managers in Houston also want to see gross income at roughly 3x the monthly rent.
Investor Tool
Projects cash flow, cap rate, and total return over your holding period — including a hypothetical sale at the end. This is a planning model built on the assumptions you enter, not a guarantee; real returns depend on the actual market and property.
Purchase & Financing
Income
Annual Operating Expenses
Hold & Sale Assumptions
Year 1 Cap Rate
0%
Year 1 Monthly Cash Flow
$0
Year 1 Cash-on-Cash
0%
Total Cash Invested
$0
Total Return Over Holding Period
If you're financing this through new construction, several of my builder relationships work specifically with investor buyers — happy to talk through which communities make sense for a rental strategy.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.
Buyer Tool · Medical Relocation
Runs a month-by-month comparison — what a buyer builds in home equity versus what a renter could build by investing the difference elsewhere, including the tax savings from deducting mortgage interest and property tax — to estimate the point where buying pulls ahead. This is the exact question I hear most from relocating clients deciding whether to rent for the first year.
Home Purchase
Renting Instead
Your Assumptions
Result
| Year | Buying: Net Position | Renting: Net Position |
|---|
If you're relocating and not sure how long you'll stay, this is worth running before committing either way — especially since a shorter timeline usually tips this toward renting, no matter how good the mortgage rate looks.
The rate above is just an example — see this week's national average from Freddie Mac, or get a real, personalized quote from my preferred lenders.