Bridge Loan Calculator: Funding Gap and Interest Cost
Find out how bridge financing works if it stacks on your current debt or clears it in full, and if you pay the fee yourself or the lender withholds it.
What This Calculator Does
Here's an estimate for short-term bridge financing. The gross principal stays put in the model, and monthly interest is treated as paid in cash. Choose whether all the secured debt you enter remains or gets paid off by the loan. Then choose: fee from your pocket or deducted. Results set modeled funds against gross capacity. Beside them: your own-cash fee, net cash and principal due at exit.
Who Is This For
It's built for owners, buyers and real estate agents checking a specific Florida bridge quote, and it works with a single collateral property. The result isn't a loan approval. It isn't a verified appraisal or a full settlement statement either, and it leaves out the total cash needed to carry the property you own now and the new property.
How It Works
First, make both choices: how your existing debt is handled and who pays the origination fee. Then fill in seven numbers: the property's value, your current secured debt or its complete payoff quote, plus the lender's LTV cap, followed by the bridge amount, the annual rate, the origination fee percentage and the term in whole months. Enter 0 only where the form permits it, and never use 0 to hide debt you really carry. Press Calculate and set the loan proceeds side by side with the fee you cover out of pocket and the net cash left to you. Read any shortfall or over-limit alert before going further. Plan to repay the entire loan amount. If anything changes, request an updated lender quote and a fresh payoff quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does keeping existing debt differ from replacing it?
Keep mode puts the bridge on top of your existing debt, while replace mode retires that debt. In keep mode, the gross bridge is added to all the secured debt that remains against the same property in the lender's count. Gross capacity is the property value multiplied by your LTV and cut down to the whole cent, less that debt, and never below 0. Under replace mode, the bridge pays off every earlier obligation you entered, leaving no old lien behind. The payoff lowers loan funds, not capacity, which stays your gross ceiling. Paying off only some debts, or tracking balances over time, isn't modeled.
What changes if I pay the origination fee separately?
It changes who pays the fee, not the size of the loan. If you pay the fee yourself, the modeled funds left after the payoff are unchanged and the fee appears as cash you owe. If the lender holds it back, the same fee comes out of those funds and no own-cash line appears. Either way, net cash position is the funds after payoff less the origination fee, a combined cash effect rather than necessarily the amount wired to you. The gross principal and its interest are the same either way, and the fee is never added to them. Whatever the lender folds into the loan should already be inside its gross quote, so leave it out here.
Which charges make up total cost, and does principal count?
Total cost is only the origination fee you entered plus the modeled monthly cash-paid interest during the hold. Nothing you pay on the old loan counts here, and neither does the cost of carrying the other property. Penalties and extensions are left out too, as are loan taxes, recording, title and other closing charges. A full payoff of the old loan may bring charges that reduce your funds; those belong to the payoff, not the bridge. The entire bridge principal comes due at exit; it is shown separately and is never counted in total cost. Total cost also falls short of your full cash budget for holding two properties.
Does staying within the limit mean approval or enough cash?
No to both. All the check does is compare the gross principal you request against the capacity derived from your collateral, LTV and debt treatment. In replace mode, a loan can sit within capacity and still be too small to clear your earlier debt or pay for another purchase. When modeled loan funds or net cash position go negative, you will need to bring more cash; a negative figure marks a shortfall, not a negative wire. If you request more than capacity, the calculator still projects the hypothetical cost of that amount, without trimming the loan or treating it as approved. Ask the lender to confirm underwriting, and work out the cash you really need outside this tool.
How are months, fees and interest calculated here?
Monthly interest is the annual rate divided by 12, applied to the entire loan amount and rounded to the cent. The upfront fee is rounded to the cent the same way. Multiply that rounded monthly interest by the number of months and you get total interest. Terms run 1–24 whole months, so an entry of 2.0 counts as 2 months rather than 20. The form sets that 1–24 range; it is not a typical bridge term and not a Fannie Mae requirement. The rate takes 0%–25%, the fee 0%–5% and LTV 0%–100%, all accepting up to four decimals. These are the form's limits, not market quotes. The model has no daily interest, no APR, no deferred or compounding interest and no principal paydowns.
What should I verify outside the calculator?
Start with the appraisal and every secured lien now on the property, each with its full payoff. Next, pin down the LTV your lender allows, the loan size, how you'll cover the fee and when you expect to exit. A new amount or a new timeline calls for fresh quotes, because nothing here is repriced. Mortgage costs are explained by the CFPB, and bridge and swing loans are covered in Fannie Mae guidance; neither one confirms your offer. Your lender may combine the current, the new and the bridge payments, and this tool computes neither DTI nor approval. No amount can exceed $2 billion, and results past $10 billion won't display; those are calculator limits. Other costs are left out. Whether you have enough cash, and whether you can repay the whole loan at exit, are separate questions.