Anyone else have a horror story about their mortgage refiancing?

[Chubroach]

Mortgage rates are at historical lows, refinance now! So says the numerous POP UP ADS that come over the internet. After paying a 7.25 percent interest rate for our 30 year fixed mortgage loan, for years, we decided it was time to refinance. What an experience!

We put an application in for a mortgage refiancing on one of the internet sites that lets mortgage companies compete for your loan. This opened the door for numerous loan officers to call me up, beating the "don't call list" begging for my business. Each offered me a very low interest rate and competitive closing costs at first. Though after the process started I could not pin them down on the REAL CLOSING COSTS and the numbers of fees connected to closing seemed to increase everytime I talked to the loan officer. Also phone calls, after the first sales contact were slow to be returned.

Just when I decided to work with a particular loan offer I would recieve emails and phone calls telling me I should change my mortgage provider in mid stream because they would get us a better deal. It seems to be an idustry that is high on competition but low on service and ethics.

How did your mortgage refinacing work out?

 

[ByTheSea]

Our Mortgage broker is our next door neighbor and a friend who is honest and ethical. In fact, one year after we refinanced and interest rates continued to drop, he almost felt guilty (like anyone knows what's going to happen to the interest rates) and we refinanced again after 18 months. He completed almost all the paperwork for us and waived all the fee's for the second round of refinancing.

I would recommend him to anyone (and he doesn't need the business, I'm not actually recommending him, he's too busy as it is) but I would suggest you talk to friends and family in your area and who they went through and their experiences and find a good trustworthy broker.

 

[Mishetta]

I don't know how low rates have gotten but in the summer, we got a 4.74% loan & since the interest was so low, we ended up refinancing for a 15 year loan! We went thru our bank which is probably one of the largest financial institutions. Everything is pretty much up-front with them. Guess what? During the time we were waiting for the loan approval, they had a special offering FREE re-financing so our loan rep quickly informed us & we qualified for the free refinaning loan. Originally though, our refinancing fees were going to be nearly $1000.

Personally, I'd be a little nervous doing that type of business over the internet. I want to sit across the desk from someone who will be handling the biggest investment I have. But that's just ME!

Good luck!!

 

[grinningghost]

Nope. I'm glad I did. I got a 4.625 rate. And just in time, my taxes went up (when don't they? ). So the refi helped alot.

 

[DawnCt]

We have less than 5 years on our 15 year mortgage which is at 7.25% I have been innundated with calls for a year and I challenge all of them that if they can effectively lower our rate I would refinance. Of course at this point in our mortgage, we would almost have to have a zero per cent rate or no closing costs. No one ever calls me back.

 

[r3ngels]

My DH is one of the directors at the largest mortgage company in the country (he is in home equity's though) and they get loans through internet companies... so there are really good ones out there with great rates but I would make sure it is a well known company with a good background. I don't know the board rules about naming other companies but we have gone through Lending Tree for a car loan and it is one of the companies my husband deals with and they were great. But I hate refi's, too much signing, paperwork, headaches ughhhh... I have no idea how my DH can deal with it everyday.

 

[disneygals]

We finally refinanced to a 10 yr a year and a half ago (of course the rates dropped lower again after!! ). We saved some costs by going with the same bank, but there were still closing costs.

We had pre-paid different amounts so it was hard to figure out the interest we had already paid and at what point it would really pay by doing a refi. One guy kept telling me that "if your monthly pymt is less, you will always be saving", which is totally untrue. If you've paid interest for a number of years and then go back to a 30 year, it's not a savings.

 

[buzzlady]

About 6 months ago I called our bank that we currently have our mortgage with and asked about refinancing. She told me that if I wanted to refinance the exact amount of our mtg. all we had to do was pay a $500 fee and they would change our rate to the lower rate.

 

[holycow]

Wow, where do you people bank?!
We refinanced and I really don't think we got a great rate..6.5 from an 8 and paid 3500 in closing! YIKES...do I feel ripped or what!


Holycow

 

[Lewski709]

I would go to a local bank. I tried once with priceline.com and they were screwing me. Finally they decided to make it all good to give me the 250.00 I had put down upfront (non refundable by the way) back. We then went to our local bank.

 

[buddy&wooz]

We refinanced last summer through our mortgage holder, the closing costs were low (I forget exactly how much) and we rolled them in, but since we were going from a 30 year loan (with over 28 years still on it) to a 15 year we were back ahead as far as equity within 6 months. Within three years we went from a 30 year loan at 9% to another 30 year at 7.25% to the current 15 year at 5%.

I also got a home equity line via Lending Tree and never had a problem with phone calls or annoying sales people. Everything was done online, in fact I've never spoken to anyone from our lender, except the notary who came to our house so we could close.

 

[KristiKelly]

We refinanced last year, we went thru a mortgage broker, signed the contract - 15 years, 4.375, 0 points. A month went by and we were put off on closing 2 times, as it turns out - they lost our rate!!! DH was PO'd, after threatening to take them to court, call BBB, & a call to the attorney general, they gave us a rate @ 4.875 (.5 point difference) with 2 points. DH said he would take it but they had to pay everything else: points, closing cost, appraisal, any extra costs, their little error ended up costing them about $5500. We are now looking into refinancing again, the other week someone had 3.75 w/ 2 points, that would lower our monthly payments about $180 a month.

If you sign a contract, bug them to death and make sure it's a done deal, the same thing happened to my cousin - the same company also.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

We close on our refinancing next week. I got us a rate of 4.25% for 15 years. I choose a company that I had worked with a lot when I was a realtor and they had done a previous refinance for us. It has been effortless. They are real professionals and provide great customer service.

Lori