Another refinance question

[sam_gordon]

First, yes, I'm contacting our current lender to see what they have to offer.
Second, yes, I'm contacting credit unions (that either I or DW qualify for) to see what they have to offer.
Third, yes, I've contact Churchill Mortgage (Dave Ramsey's favorite).

All that being said, I'm also looking at other banks. Is there a review site you trust? I'm looking at Zillow.com & bankrate.com.

I'm worried about "too good to be true" rates.

 

[Sheree]

the credit union may have a deal for it's members, they lend their own money. getg a list of all of their charges. things like title, recording, appraisal, escrows are not the lenders fees butg they will estimate them
most banks lend fnma or fhlmc and the rates should be the same. some may charge an origination fee or points to make the rate lower.
without knowing your loan to value, fico scores, rate/term or cash out; noone can or should give you an exact rate quote. those items can make it vary.
i've been a mortgage banker, not broker for over 20 years

 

[riley2008]

We did our refi in November. Amerisave had the best rates and we went with them. Lending Tree tried to scare us by saying that other inquiries would threatened our credit score and other hard-sale tactics.

I had read the reviews (pros and cons - and there are lots of negatives) of Amerisave - most seemed to have difficulty with they were self employeed, had other non-traditional income or a non-traditional (i.e., log cabin in the city, dome home, home with apartment not being used as such, etc). We are a two person income family with careers in our fields for 10+ years each with the same company, 800+ credit scores and a very traditional home in a small neighborhood with low turn over in homes.

We didn't have any problems and they even allowed us to close with the company we chose. Cons-process seemed slow, but apparently underwriting is slow everwhere now. Also, I did have to sign a letter as to the credit inquiries on my report - which included the Amerisave one! (and bit of a DUH moment on their part I thought). The person I worked with though, drafted the letter for me and all I had to do was print out, sign and return.

Also, we checked with DH's credit union, my credit union, the city-county credit union and both our banks and Amerisave was by far the best deal. But again, I think ours was pretty straight forward and somewhat easy. (Oh, I did also have all our documents together before I even started the process - bank statements, paystubs, savings and investment account statments, and last mortgage statement.)

Good luck! We shaved 8 years off the remaining loan and we cashed out value for a pool and paid off DH's truck!