Latest Experiences on Refinancing??

[ColoradoMom!!]

My search didn't have any recent threads - so I thought I'd start a new one.

Who have you refi'd with lately? Amount of time to close? Happy? Rates to share?

We can go from a 4.75% 15 year (with about 13 left) from a re-fi in 2009 with Wells Fargo that had no closing costs/fee's to now with Wells Fargo 3.25% on a 10 year - but we have to do the closing costs - estimate around $2,500. We are above the loan to value at 60% - is that what it is called?

Since we are staying, I think we will go for it although the monthly payment goes up slightly, we will save thousands over the life of the loan.

Has anyone gone with a random mortgage co's with a great rate - I am just too nervous to try some of those "too good to be true" rates/co.'s out there.

 

[HeatherC]

Check out the calculators on mortgage-net.com. You can play around with the numbers to see if it is worth doing.

You may find that by just prepaying some extra on your principal each month, you will still knock the years off your loan and not have to pay closing costs.

Plug the different scenarios in to see how much you can save on interest both ways. If you want it done in ten years, find out how much extra you need each month. It may wind up better to just make a larger payment on your own and not refinance.

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

We just closed w/ B of America. It took FOREVER. We started the process in August. More paperwork than I've ever done for a "normal" closing for a house. And they were already holding our mortgage!

But it will be nice for that lower payment next month.

 

[CRdisMom]

started our process in October and will close next week. Wells is running really slow. Did get a good rate on a 30 but agree with PP that more documentation and they have had our mortage forever!

 

[WeLuvDCL]

Check out the calculators on mortgage-net.com. You can play around with the numbers to see if it is worth doing.

You may find that by just prepaying some extra on your principal each month, you will still knock the years off your loan and not have to pay closing costs.

Plug the different scenarios in to see how much you can save on interest both ways. If you want it done in ten years, find out how much extra you need each month. It may wind up better to just make a larger payment on your own and not refinance.

Completely agree - but I think this is a better calculator to use to see the difference. http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/mortgage-calculator.aspx

Start buy putting in your 15 year info and take the difference between your 10y monthly payment and your 15y payment and put that in as extra money applied to principle every month.

Then just do a straight 10y and compare interest totals from now (on 15y loan) to end. Once you subtract the $2,500, I doubt it will be that big of a difference. You have already paid the bulk of the interest on the 15y because you pay more interest at the beginning of the loan that at the end.

IMO, if you are going to save less than $2,000 or maybe even $3,000. It would not be worth it. On the 15y you could stop paying the extra $$ if you ever got into financial trouble but on the 10y you are stuck with the higher payment.

Now, if you were refinancing from a 30y to a 15y, it would definitely be worth it.

 

[FINFAN]

We are closing w/Chase next week...entire process done by phone/email/fax...within 30 days. Without posting private info, I can say the only time we are actually leaving the house is to attend the closing which they are doing in the evening at our request. We had about $400 in fees total, def worth it in our case. We had Chase to start with tho, so that is what made the process very simplified. I have no idea if we are staying in this house forever, I would love to move but not giving the house away so guess we will see.

 

[ICF]

We are going with a local bank (Union Savings) who we did a refi with about 16 months ago. The process this time around has been much quicker.

I called them in late Dec and we just had the appraisal done on Tuesday and likley will close sometime next week.

We had a 20 year @ 4.25% and now will have a 20 year @ 3.75%. The closing costs were $250.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

Completely agree - but I think this is a better calculator to use to see the difference. http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/mortgage-calculator.aspx

Start buy putting in your 15 year info and take the difference between your 10y monthly payment and your 15y payment and put that in as extra money applied to principle every month.

Then just do a straight 10y and compare interest totals from now (on 15y loan) to end. Once you subtract the $2,500, I doubt it will be that big of a difference. You have already paid the bulk of the interest on the 15y because you pay more interest at the beginning of the loan that at the end.

IMO, if you are going to save less than $2,000 or maybe even $3,000. It would not be worth it. On the 15y you could stop paying the extra $$ if you ever got into financial trouble but on the 10y you are stuck with the higher payment.

Now, if you were refinancing from a 30y to a 15y, it would definitely be worth it.

Great calculator on this site under refinance - thank you! I plugged all the numbers in and it said it would take about 14 months to recover the costs, but savings in interest would be $20,000 over life of loan. So for a 10 year loan, I would be saving $2,000 a year? That sounds pretty good. My monthly payment goes up about $175. Our current 15 year still has 13 left on it.

Thanks for everyone's help - keep your experiences coming! One of my DH's co-workers ended up with Chase found through a broker. Glad it went well for you FINFAN!

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Bought our house in 2005 @5.5% for 30 yrs. Like many people we are upside down due to the depressed housing market. We have always paid on time and have great credit, but could not do a refi because of being upside down.

Luckily a new program started recently and we are allowed to refi now. We got a 60 day lock (just in case processing glitches occurred) and chose 4.25% for 30 years with no closing costs. We also expect to "close the deal" in our living room.

This going to save us a couple hundred dollars a month. We are happy and can't wait to close on the new loan.

The requirements have loosened up and the rates are pretty low. If you could not do it before, you might be able to now.

 

[meriface11]

Bought our house in 2005 @5.5% for 30 yrs. Like many people we are upside down due to the depressed housing market. We have always paid on time and have great credit, but could not do a refi because of being upside down.

Luckily a new program started recently and we are allowed to refi now. We got a 60 day lock (just in case processing glitches occurred) and chose 4.25% for 30 years with no closing costs. We also expect to "close the deal" in our living room.

This going to save us a couple hundred dollars a month. We are happy and can't wait to close on the new loan.

The requirements have loosened up and the rates are pretty low. If you could not do it before, you might be able to now.

we're in the middle of a HARP refinance too. we started the inquiry in the beginning of December and should close within about 30 days from now. it's been very easy--essentially no paperwork, but had to have an appraisal.

 

[wide awake]

Have refied twice in the last 6 months. Bought our house in 2008, $429,000, VA, no money down, 5.5, 30 years, $3200/month. In July went to 25 year, 4.75, payment $3000/month. Signed papers last week, 3.87, 15 yrs, $3521/month. No costs for first refi, had to pay approx $9000 for last one, but it took our balance to $412,000...VA requirement, because the payment cannot go up more than 20%. We went w/ B of A. All at home or by fax and email, easy, no appraisal...obviously, we are upside down. Payment includes escrow account. Both refis took about 2 months from initial inquiry email. I figure I've save approx $460,000 from original loan.

 

[lucigo]

Be careful when they say "no closing costs". Typically what that means is that the closing costs are wrapped into your loan. In Florida even if the bank says no closing costs it will add about 5K to your loan. We are still at 6.25 and I'm hesitant to jump because it will still take 2 years to break even.

 

[LauraR]

We refinanced last Nov., and went from 5.25% for 30 years to 3.25% for 15. Our payment went up by about $400 (but luckily our property taxes were cut around the same time, so it is only $300 extra a month now.)
We're in MD and the mortgage company (Embrace Home Loans) paid for closing costs (really, not just rolled them into the loan), which were just under $3,000. I felt like I won the lottery after we closed, because of the huge amount of interest we are saving!

 

[The Iron Giant]

We're doing a refi right now. We close in 30 days - everything is being done over the phone and then they will come to our house for the closing.

We're refinancing our 30 year loan into a 20 year loan at 3.75%. Our payments will actually only go down about $20 a month but we will cut about 4 years off the loan and save about $80,000 in interest.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Good point about the CC's.

Our CCs are not being rolled into our loan. The "middleman" is paying them.

In exchange for the "no cc" option I know that we are paying a slightly higher interest rate than if we had paid the cc ourselves, but we did not want to fork over that kind of cash.

We are thankful that the smaller payment perfectly coincides with our DD's high school graduation and therefore her college bills!

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

We refinanced back in Sept/Oct (4% for 20) and just locked in again last week to drop to a 3.75 (20 yrs)- it is a savings of $19k over the life of the loan. Just had the appraisal this week and our house has dropped another $20k since early fall! Looks like we aren't going through with it- we would have to put $11k into the house to avoid PMI.

 

[Shannon G]

I recently refi'd with US Bank, who already held my mortgage. got 4.375% on a 25 year mortgage (I was 5 years into a 30 year, so I wanted to keep the remaining repayment period the same). My rate had been 6.25%. Even with the closing costs wrapped into the loan, my monthly payment will be about $320 less. It took about 3 months for it to close, and I never had to leave my house - the bulk of it was done over the phone, and a notary came to my house in the evening for me to sign all the closing documents.

 

[disny_luvr]

I recently refi'd with US Bank, who already held my mortgage. got 4.375% on a 25 year mortgage (I was 5 years into a 30 year, so I wanted to keep the remaining repayment period the same). My rate had been 6.25%. Even with the closing costs wrapped into the loan, my monthly payment will be about $320 less. It took about 3 months for it to close, and I never had to leave my house - the bulk of it was done over the phone, and a notary came to my house in the evening for me to sign all the closing documents.

Our mortgage is currently with US Bank and I am thinking about looking into refinancing with them. How much paper work was involved? Should I start compiling recent paystubs, bank statements, 401k/IRA statements?

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

Our mortgage is currently with US Bank and I am thinking about looking into refinancing with them. How much paper work was involved? Should I start compiling recent paystubs, bank statements, 401k/IRA statements?

OP here - funny it was US Bank that got me thinking about all this as we are long time customers although Wells Fargo holds our current loan. They told me no closing costs - streamline loan, but there rates were not as good as I found with Wells Fargo. They quoted me 3.99% on a 15 year.

She swore there were no costs, not even rolled into the loan, but I am not so sure. This is the same gal that said we could lower the interest rate on our reserve line from 15% to 9% by just saying OK. We NEVER have used it (covers overdraft) but I said fine. Come to find out that we actually opened a new line of credit, and along came the cards associated with this new line. I was not happy. Called US Bank who said that it was basically no big deal since we will never use it, but I felt very mislead by this gal. Hope she is enjoying her steak knife set that we must have helped earn my meeting her quota of something.

 

[NYEmomma]

For all of those that have refinanced recently with no closing costs, what bank did you go through? And was it the same bank that originally held your mortgage loan??

We'd love to refinance... we'd save quite a bit with the interest rate. But we're looking at moving in 2-3 years (1000 sq ft with 3 growing kids is not going to work well) so we wouldn't really recoup the closing costs if we had to pay them.