Nearly A Nerd.com

Make the best mortgage calculator, win $10,000

Attention programmers: the folks at Mortgage Loan Place.com are running a contest to see who can build the most “super sexy” mortgage calculator.   By “super sexy” they mean they want the best mortgage calculator ever designed in terms of functionality, design and ease of use.  Ten grand to the winner.  You have until July 31, 2009 to enter.

Screenshots of decent mortgage calculators already in existence and some contest requirements and suggestions, after the jump.

First off, visit the contest page for full details.  What follows is sniped from a PDF to give you an vague idea of what is absolutely required and what additional features they’d really like to see in the calculator:

Required Features and Functionality

• Calculate mortgage payments.  Required Fields - Principal, Interest Rate, Term. Final Value - Monthly Payment.

• We require input fields for yearly taxes and insurance.  Required Fields - Taxes and Insurance.

• Down payment and Private mortgage insurance.  Required Fields - Down Payment and PMI.

• An amortization table or payment graph should be included to help illustrate the increase in equity and corresponding decrease of principal over the life of the loan.

• Ajax should be used so that fields are dynamically updated on the calculator.

• Default values. The default numbers in the calculator should be a $300,000 home value, a $60,000 down payment, 5.5% interest, 1.5% of home value for property tax, and .5% of property value for homeowner’s insurance.

• The calculator should have a “widget” version that is no larger than 175 pixels wide and 700 pixels long.

Highly Encouraged Features and Functionality

• Use jquery overlays to display amortization table, principal pay down, and/or any other charts and graphs that come to mind (jquery or similar).

• A white label widget output. For instance, a realtor using the calculator could upload their logo or photo, choose colors, and customize the widget to match their site. A color wheel or color options for the widget could be an interesting way to customize the calculator.

• Continuing on the white label theme, a PDF or Word doc export function that prints out the amortization tables and graphs along with the mortgage details with the realtor’s logo would also be a nice feature.

+++

I’ve edited the above list heavily so please visit the contest page for full details.

I leave you now with sreenshots of some current mortgage calculators.  (Click the images to visit the corresponding sites) :

And be sure to enter NearlyANerd.com in the contest’s “referred by:” field when you submit the winning calculator.  For alas, I am just a lowly blogger and by no means a programmer and if you refer the winner, you win a grand!  Spread the word and/or get coding.