A free online mortgage calculator plus three add-ons gets you a solid ballpark without calling anyone. Plug in your loan amount and a current 30-year rate for the principal-and-interest piece. For the rate, use the Mortgage News Daily rate table, right here on our site: /mnd-rates. Then layer on the pieces basic calculators often leave out: - Property taxes. In many areas, around 1.25% of the price per year, divided by 12, is a reasonable starting point. Confirm your county's actual rate, since it varies. - Homeowners insurance. Outside high fire-hazard zones, something in the range of $1,200 to $2,500 a year is a workable placeholder until you get a real quote. Divide by 12. - Mortgage insurance. Putting less than 20% down on a conventional loan, pencil in roughly half a percent of the loan amount per year, and treat that strictly as a placeholder. MI pricing varies with the program, down payment, credit score, and number of borrowers. Add those to principal and interest and you have a back-of-napkin total that is genuinely useful for budgeting. The precise version comes from pricing your actual scenario, which is exactly what the free Roadmap conversation produces: about 20 minutes, and we run your real numbers.