I’m considering refi’ing my 30-year fixed mortgage at a point lower than my current rate. Pros – obviously lowers my costs. Cons – dealing with the co-op board clusterf*kk approval process, and getting a loan with a lender that I don’t like as much as my current lender. Anyone else going through this right now? Anyone have particularly bad experiences with lenders that I should avoid?
Also, does anyone know what’s the best site for me to find out if there were any sales in my apartment building recently for appraisal purposes?
We looked into it but decided not to in the end. We can easily afford our mortgage and our current rate is 5.4%. A refi would have saved 15% on our monthly payment. The lender was the main reason we didn’t do it. The one we have now is great and we were afraid of the unknowns of a new one.
Care to share the lenders?
We refinanced our 30 yr to a 15 yr back in Feb. when the rates first dropped. We stuck w/the same lender (a regional bank) – is there a reason why you can stick w/your current lender since you like them? I’m sure they would happily accept your money for closing fees.
IHIHM, just get a female lender, flex your abz on her and you’ll automatically drop at least 20 BPS on your Mo. PMT. Just make sure you don’t do it over the telephone, you seem to have bad luck with that and you cannot really see abz through the telephone.
iheartiheartmath Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Care to share the lenders? Northwest Savings Bank
I am not understanding this good /bad lender thing. As long as you are making your payments why should you care? If you have a 30 year fixed rate mortgage does it really matter whether you like your lender? For me, it is all about the rate. If I am getting 4.75% as opposed to 6.5% on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, why should I care whether I like my lender? What am I missing here?
Be careful of the appraisal. We played the refi game a ton recently. Magically, our appraisal kept coming in at 79% LTV time after time, despite the fact that our home value must have plummeted. However, recently, our correspondent lender became subject to new appraisal rules that prevent him from selecting or even communicating with the appraiser. I have a feeling our new LTV would be > 80% with a random appraiser. Fortunately we have a reasonably good rate (5.25%). Not as good as it could be, obviously.
I was thinking about it, the main reason I haven’t done it is I’m not sure how much longer we’ll stay at the current place given the cheap real estate out there.
I agree, thommo. We have been less excited about recent local bank lenders (to whom our correspondent lender has sold the loan). They have poor/non-existent online banking and make us pay with a little coupon book. The current one copied down the wrong parcel number and told us that of course they had our tax bill. But they didn’t, so it was nearly late because they didn’t bother to get it right or contact me. They also assumed that we had an insurance escrow (we don’t) and freaked out about our escrow not being funded enough to cover our home insurance payment. So just annoying stuff that takes a little time to sort out. But it’s still worth the $$$ to me to deal with them.
No-one on variable rates? They are nicely counter-cyclical so you get a boost when financial sector remuneration tends to dip. I’m paying 1.6% at the moment. The downside being in 5 years time it could be 8%. No way of knowing.
It could also be 16% in 5 years. Get a fixed.
I was approved for a 5/1 ARM at a 5-year fixed rate of 3.625% with 1% max annual adjustment for five years after the fixed period, to peak no higher than 8.625%. No prepayment penalties. Given that few people hold their house more than 10 years, I’m surprised this trend hasn’t picked up. Anyway, I think it’s pretty crazy to use a traditional bank for a loan. If you want to ensure you get the worst interest rates, use traditional banking. If you want the best rates, go with a broker because they have access to a multitude of loan products and lending institutions.
kkent Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- up. > > Anyway, I think it’s pretty crazy to use a > traditional bank for a loan. If you want to ensure > you get the worst interest rates, use traditional > banking. If you want the best rates, go with a > broker because they have access to a multitude of > loan products and lending institutions. That is true, however, lots of bank has stopped or dramatically reduced the usage of mortgage brokers. So, mortgage broker’s products offering have suffered too.
That may be true. In that case, use a mortgage banker at a smaller shop. They usually have access to wholesale products.
Fixed vs. Floating really has to do with how long you’re going to live in your house and how much you want to pay. If you’ll be there for the rest of your life a 15 or 30 fixed fully amortizing is fine… but most people don’t live in the same place for more than 7 years, so you might want to look at 7/1 or 10/1 arms… you might get whipsawed when the mortgage starts floating… but if you’re moving out in by then, you’ll be subject to the new market rate anyways. What’s your current rate and balance? There’s also different rates, LTV, and DTI requirements depending on the property/mortgage in question.
^^^True, but it is difficult to plan exactly how long to live in a place. With a floating if you want to move or stay in 7 years, as you point out it makes no difference. With a fixed you at least have the option to stay and avoid higher rates. Additionally, if you are not changing cities you can rent your existing place while paying the low mortgage rate and still move to the new place, subject to the higher rate mortage. Chances are you are prepaying the rental if rates go up, if you bought intelligently in the first place.
kkent Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was approved for a 5/1 ARM at a 5-year fixed > rate of 3.625% with 1% max annual adjustment for > five years after the fixed period, to peak no > higher than 8.625%. No prepayment penalties. Given > that few people hold their house more than 10 > years, I’m surprised this trend hasn’t picked up. > ARMs are fine for people with good financial knowledge who are fiscally responsible (presumably that includes most of us here). Unfortunately, they were heavily marketed over the last 7-8 years to people who didn’t understand them and live paycheck to paycheck. If you survey a bunch of ARM holders even now, a scary percentage would have no idea that the 3 5/8 % they pay today could be 8% five years from now and an even scarier percentage won’t be able to afford 8% five years from now. I just locked in 4.125% fixed for 15 years with TD and will be a happy camper no matter how long I live there.