See those low low low interest rates? Anyone doing a refi? - Page 2

[Farmer'sWife]

Anyone have tips/info on refinancing without the traditional income verification? Our situation is that we farm and and are able to manage our income and expenses to show very little taxable income. So when the refi people look at our tax info it shows we make less than $20,000 a year and want to refi a $230,000 mortgage...which obviously gets us automatically disqualified. In reality we make much more a year and have never been late on our mortgage in the five years we've had it. I'd really like to take advantage of the current rates. Thoughts?

ETA: Our current mortgage is with Chase, who as PPs have mentioned are less than stellar to work with.

[texmati]

we are! If we do, it's going to make a huge difference in feeling secure about SAH next year!

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by Youngfrankenstein

I am just so thankful I have a very money-wise spouse. If it were up to me, I couldn't do half as much and would probably be in the hole majorly.

Same here! DP rocks with money and is slowly teaching me but I don't know what we'd do if he didn't have that knowledge.

Originally Posted by texmati

we are! If we do, it's going to make a huge difference in feeling secure about SAH next year!

Same here We are considering adding another baby to our family in the next year or so and, if that happens, I'll be a SAHM for at least the first year. We are going to re-fi anytime now (dp is working on that). It will save us a little every month, which we'll take any extra monthly income we can right now!

[Mulvah]

Originally Posted by rose angel

How did you guys go about refi-ing? Just call your current mortgage company?

Check with places other than your current mortgage company, too. Call around (get recommendations from locals, local message boards, check bankrate.com and use BBB to make sure it's a good company, etc.) and ask for a good faith estimate (GFE) based upon your numbers. The rates should be relatively the same, but you want to see where you stand with each of them. Also, check with your local bank, too.

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan

...Our long-term plan is to have the mortgage paid off by the time our DD goes off to college (theoretically, since she may choose otherwise) in 9 years....

Okay, I never thought about this as a goal and it's quite smart!

Edited by Mulvah - 10/16/11 at 2:54pm

[melissel]

Yep, DH works for a developer with a mortgage division, and they offered their employees a good rate with low closing costs, so we re-fied to 4.25 (I think? It may even be lower now). I wanted to go to a 15-year too, but things are a little precarious right now, and we were worried about managing the higher payment each month, so we stuck to the 30-year and will prepay as we're able. As it is, we're saving over $300 a month! So happy about that

[annethcz]

We've been holding off on refinancing because we're in the middle of finishing our basement. With the real estate market the way it is, we feel that having the basement finished will help greatly with the appraised value of our home.

BUT, DH is doing the work himself. And although he's been working on it in his spare time, it is taking forever. He promised me it would be done by the beginning of the summer, and now at the end of the summer it is nowhere close to being finished. I'm not even sure if it will be done by *next* summer. Sigh.

I've been hesitant to go ahead and attempt a refi and pay for an appraisal that might not come in high enough. But as low as rates are now, I think I'm going to go for it. We've been in our house for 3 years, and rates are almost 2% lower now. That's HUGE! For us, it would over $400/month difference on a 30year mortgage. A 15year mortgage would be a bit higher than our current payment, and I'm not if we'd want to extend ourselves that way.

Farmer's Wife- our situation is different than yours, so I can't advise you. That said, if you end up going with a local bank and it works out well, I'd love to hear about it. I think we'll start with our current lender (Bank of America), and maybe apply to a few local banks as well.

Everyone else- if you've used an internet lender, how has it worked out? Who have you been happy with? I have a friend who just refinanced and used Lending Tree to find a lender, but I believe that the friend's financial situation is a bit more precarious than mine. Is LendingTree still a good idea if I have excellent credit?

[sunnysandiegan]

Our credit union has been our only lender. Every time we have "shopped" re-fi's, they've had the best rate/points/process/etc. We've had the original loan plus two refinances now.

[GardenStream]

We're calling around today and I think we're going to go ahead and do it. We've got 23 years left on this loan and I really want to switch to a 15 year. We looked into a 10 year, but that's $500 a month more than we're currently paying and I'm just not comfortable with that big of a payment.

On one hand I'm thrilled at the thought of having the house paid off before the first kid goes off to college, but I'm also a little scared of losing our line of credit. We have a 40K line of credit that we have always looked at an our emergency buffer. We'll most likely lose that when they appraise the house for the new mortgage.

[em123]

Is it possible to refinance when you've only owned a home for a year and a half? We bought our home November 2008 at 6.25%, but I see our bank is down to 4.25%. I think our home is worth about the same as we paid for it (based on zillow which I know isn't reality!!). What do you guys think?

[juliasmum]

We just refinanced. We had 23 years left on our 30 year mortgage and we decided to go with a 15 year this time.

Our payments went down $10 a month from what we were paying before and basically shaved 8 years off our payments.

It felt so amazing to be able to do that!

[texmati]

Originally Posted by StephandOwen

Same here We are considering adding another baby to our family in the next year or so and, if that happens, I'll be a SAHM for at least the first year. We are going to re-fi anytime now (dp is working on that). It will save us a little every month, which we'll take any extra monthly income we can right now!

I just saw this! how exciting for all 3 of you! I'm really hoping the sah thing works out for me too.

[annekevdbroek]

We refied a few months ago - we are paying a bit more a month, but went from a 30 year note (with 28 years left on it) to a 15 year note, and shaved 1.5% of the interest. Saved some place in the range of 250k on the life of the loan.

[GardenStream]

Originally Posted by annekevdbroek

Saved some place in the range of 250k on the life of the loan.

Wow, that's a lot of money. Good for you

We got a phone call last night from our local branch. He told us that with the HARP program, we could retain our line of credit. That was news to us and made our decision much easier. We'll save about 90k by switching to a 15 year loan.

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by em123

Is it possible to refinance when you've only owned a home for a year and a half? We bought our home November 2008 at 6.25%, but I see our bank is down to 4.25%. I think our home is worth about the same as we paid for it (based on zillow which I know isn't reality!!). What do you guys think?

It really depends on how much of your monthly payment has gone towards principal thus far, thereby reducing your new loan amount. You may not even need a new appraisal since it was less than two years ago. However, it usually takes awhile before it is worth it due to fees and loan amount, etc. Try a refinance mortgage calculator with your numbers and give your lender a call. We did our first re-fi a little over two years after the original loan and it worked out great for us (went from 8% to 6%), but this was back in the early 2000s under different lending practices.

Another thought.... Do you pay PMI? Have you paid in enough to get rid of it? If so, I would look into that.

[columbusmomma]

We are going to refinance for sure

[Mulvah]

Originally Posted by em123

Is it possible to refinance when you've only owned a home for a year and a half? We bought our home November 2008 at 6.25%, but I see our bank is down to 4.25%. I think our home is worth about the same as we paid for it (based on zillow which I know isn't reality!!). What do you guys think?

Look into it. Now is a great time to refinance if you can swing it, but you will have to work the numbers to make sure it works out in your favor! I would start by calling your current lender to see what they say.

How long do you plan to be in your home? Figure out what your rate would be based upon regular closing costs and then figure out what it would be based upon a lender credit for a higher interest rate (which would be lower than you have). Then, determine the difference in closing cost amounts, monthly payment amounts, and figure out which makes more sense for your situation.

Our situation is such that we haven't owned our home long, but this is our second refinance. Both times we were able to get the lender to pay our closing costs by giving us a (slightly) higher rate. However, in both situations the rates we refinanced to were lower than the rate we had before the refinance. We don't think we will be staying here long, so this worked out best for us. We wouldn't recoup the cost(s) of refinancing otherwise.