There are few real estate questions that can't be answered with "Do the math."

Problem is, if you don't have a Texas Instruments real estate calculator, you're lost.

Even if you did have one of TI's trusty, but bulky blocks of number keys, you wouldn't know how to use it.

You also don't want to call your friendly neighborhood real estate agent every time you've got to crunch some numbers.

Nolo.com, the Berkeley-based, self-help publisher has taken the guesswork of real estate calculations with a Web-based uite of new calculators for real estate consumers.

Easily access from one convenient location, the calculators aren't the final word on your bottom line, but they come pretty close to it.

The site also offers an array of other calculators for other math-heavy finance issues including small business, elder care, retirement and consumer debt and credit issues.

Here are the links to each of Nolo.com's real estate calculators and notes about what each one will do:

• Rent vs. Buy
  Compare the cost of renting with the cost of buying a home, when you consider taxes and equity growth.

• How much the lender will give you
  Determine how much the lender will approve.

• How much you can afford?
  Based on the highest monthly payment you can afford, including taxes, fees, dues and insurance, here's what you can really afford, which could be less than the lender will lend.

• Fixed vs. Adjustable
  Compare any two loans with this calculator.

• Payments on a fixed rate loan
  Calculate your monthly mortgage payments for a fixed rate loan.

• Payments on an adjustable rate loan
  Calculate your monthly mortgage payments for an adjustable rate loan.

• Payments on a balloon loan
  Discover your monthly payment amount for a balloon mortgage.

• Savings from extra mortgage payments
  If you make extra payments each month, this calculator can tell you how much you can save in interest.

• When to refinance
  Here's how to tell if you should refinance your mortgage.

• Advanced mortgage calculator
  For more sophistication add points, fees and prepaid interest days to the equation with this number cruncher.

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Published: November 18, 1999

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.