Oh MY!! It's going to take 3-4 months to close on a refi??

[bdcp]

Ours took 3 months. Our appraisal was fine, our credit scores are 750+. We have a HELOC so that had to be subordinated and the max amount lowered due to the appraisal, but all that took was the mort co gave a call to our credit union and had an answer in 2 days. I do know our loan officer was useless for the most part and DH let the mortgage co know. Unfortunately, thanks to all those that got into trouble with their mortgages, the gov put so many regulations in place that it's a real pain to refi. We were told not to make any payments on our loan while this was in process, well what that got me was calls and letters from that part of the mortgage company wanting to help us figure out how to keep our home. I called and told them what we were told and they said they'd note it but then we kept getting calls. The loan officer finally had us make our payment (late so we owed the late fee) and we closed the following month (before the 16th which was when our next payment was due). We were credited the late fee plus another couple hundred at closing for the problems. All caused by them. We don't keep a lot in savings and at the last minute I was told we needed to show like 2 months payments in the bank. We finally sent them one of our several investment statements showing we had cash (it actually has enough to pay 2/3 of the mortgage off and that's just one of our statements). If we hadn't had a HELOC we could have just done a quick refi with them but I'm betting that would have taken at least a couple of months. This was Wells Fargo who rarely sells mortgages. They turned around and sold ours to Freddie Mac of Fannie Mae ( I can never remember which) and we figured it's because we are a safe bet and a "good mortgage" so we make their bundles they use as investments look good. We've owned 4 homes over the last 29 years and have never even had a late payment. So, if we have trouble getting a refi through, then good luck to everyone. Although we did joke, if we were having trouble making our payments, it would have been easier to refi.

 

[mamaLori05]

Ours took 3 months. Our appraisal was fine, our credit scores are 750+. We have a HELOC so that had to be subordinated and the max amount lowered due to the appraisal, but all that took was the mort co gave a call to our credit union and had an answer in 2 days. I do know our loan officer was useless for the most part and DH let the mortgage co know. Unfortunately, thanks to all those that got into trouble with their mortgages, the gov put so many regulations in place that it's a real pain to refi. We were told not to make any payments on our loan while this was in process, well what that got me was calls and letters from that part of the mortgage company wanting to help us figure out how to keep our home. I called and told them what we were told and they said they'd note it but then we kept getting calls. The loan officer finally had us make our payment (late so we owed the late fee) and we closed the following month (before the 16th which was when our next payment was due). We were credited the late fee plus another couple hundred at closing for the problems. All caused by them. We don't keep a lot in savings and at the last minute I was told we needed to show like 2 months payments in the bank. We finally sent them one of our several investment statements showing we had cash (it actually has enough to pay 2/3 of the mortgage off and that's just one of our statements). If we hadn't had a HELOC we could have just done a quick refi with them but I'm betting that would have taken at least a couple of months. This was Wells Fargo who rarely sells mortgages. They turned around and sold ours to Freddie Mac of Fannie Mae ( I can never remember which) and we figured it's because we are a safe bet and a "good mortgage" so we make their bundles they use as investments look good. We've owned 4 homes over the last 29 years and have never even had a late payment. So, if we have trouble getting a refi through, then good luck to everyone. Although we did joke, if we were having trouble making our payments, it would have been easier to refi.

They told you not to pay your current mortgage while you were refinancing? I guess I don't know a ton about refinancing, but wouldn't that hurt your credit rating? We've refinanced a couple of times throughout the past 6 years and were never told not to pay our current mortgage throughout the process. Once the refi when through we usually skipped a payment for that first month when the first one was paid off and the new one started, but that was it. That just seems like really bad advice, is that really common??

 

[sk8jdgca]

Oh my goodness. In Canada, you can transfer your mortgage to a different company and do an equity take out in a week! Just an equity takeout can be less

 

[Happiest mommy]

after 5 months of waiting and resubmitting the same documents beacuse they would expire I just gave up

 

[bdcp]

They told you not to pay your current mortgage while you were refinancing? I guess I don't know a ton about refinancing, but wouldn't that hurt your credit rating? We've refinanced a couple of times throughout the past 6 years and were never told not to pay our current mortgage throughout the process. Once the refi when through we usually skipped a payment for that first month when the first one was paid off and the new one started, but that was it. That just seems like really bad advice, is that really common??

We were told to skip that payment because they assumed we were going to closing before the 16th of that month. We have refinanced every house we've owned (4 homes so 4 refi's). Normally, a refi doesn't take so long that you miss a mortgage payment. No, it didn't hurt us because we didnt' actually miss a payment, it was just paid "late" - just a few days late actually. As I said above our credit scores were at 750+ and didn't change. My dad is a real estate agent and he said that's standard practice, but he's seen it happen more and more where refi's are taking longer and going past the late date. A refi was never meant to take months to complete. Once we went past the 16th of the month and were officially late, we made the late payment after they realized our closing wasn't going to happen in time. We ended up closing around the 10th of the next month so that next payment was "on time" from closing payouts. The numbers were run based on the closing date and going into the next payment cycle changed them. We can all thank gov regulations for all the problems in the housing market. Mortgage companies were forced to make low down payment loans and then forced to fix them. We only refinanced to get rid of our 10 year arm (at the 7 year point). Fortunately, we put 20% down and still have equity in our home.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We're still waiting to close. We put our application in in November. Everything is ready just waiting on the bank to schedule. It's annoying. Now they're trying to pull the "your rate has expired" BS on us.

 

[NMW]

Ours took 3 months also with our own mtg company. They said they were really backed up due to record low interest rates, but in their defense they did warn me up front. I closed the month they said I would (Nov) and even got to skip 1 1/2 mortgage payments because we closed 2 weeks early. Payment is close to $200 less a month now, so I guess it was worth it.

FWIW, our bank-Bank of America assured me that if the rate did in fact expire, they would extend it at no cost to us. We closed before the expiration, so it wasn't an issue, but our rep did assure us several times that he would take care of it for us if it did expire.

 

[mamaLori05]

We were told to skip that payment because they assumed we were going to closing before the 16th of that month. We have refinanced every house we've owned (4 homes so 4 refi's). Normally, a refi doesn't take so long that you miss a mortgage payment. No, it didn't hurt us because we didnt' actually miss a payment, it was just paid "late" - just a few days late actually. As I said above our credit scores were at 750+ and didn't change. My dad is a real estate agent and he said that's standard practice, but he's seen it happen more and more where refi's are taking longer and going past the late date. A refi was never meant to take months to complete. Once we went past the 16th of the month and were officially late, we made the late payment after they realized our closing wasn't going to happen in time. We ended up closing around the 10th of the next month so that next payment was "on time" from closing payouts. The numbers were run based on the closing date and going into the next payment cycle changed them. We can all thank gov regulations for all the problems in the housing market. Mortgage companies were forced to make low down payment loans and then forced to fix them. We only refinanced to get rid of our 10 year arm (at the 7 year point). Fortunately, we put 20% down and still have equity in our home.

That makes sense!! I guess ours have never taken that long, so like you mentioned, we never ran into that problem. What a pain!

 

[Swimalie]

This was Wells Fargo who rarely sells mortgages. They turned around and sold ours to Freddie Mac of Fannie Mae ( I can never remember which) and we figured it's because we are a safe bet and a "good mortgage" so we make their bundles they use as investments look good. We've owned 4 homes over the last 29 years and have never even had a late payment. So, if we have trouble getting a refi through, then good luck to everyone. Although we did joke, if we were having trouble making our payments, it would have been easier to refi.

Ours took about 3 months, I think. Started in early Aug and finished in late Nov. You mentioned that yours was sold to Fannie Mae, ours was as well. I was shocked. This is only the 2nd home we've had with a mortgage (owned our first home outright) and I've never had a mortgage owned by them. We also have FICO scores well above 800 so I can see your point about people with good credit scores making their investments look good. I just wish our bank (BB&T) hadn't sold it to them.

 

[Kate and Pete]

LOL! We had them ask us to get that for them too and we currently hold a mortgage with them (we too were formerly Countrywide until our mortgage was sold to BoA). I thought it was odd as well....

We JUST closed on a refi with BoA - that we started in August!!! They took so long that I had to resubmit paperwork. So, I had to fax the SAME materials, TWICE!!!! AND, they had done three credit checks on us during these months - and I had to write a letter explaining why there were three credit checks done!! So I wrote - YOUR COMPANY did these credit checks! It was a bit ridiculous. Glad it's over...

 

[Tink-n-MrIncredible]

What is the going rate that there are so many refi's?

 

[bdcp]

Rates vary according to whether it's Conventional, FHA, VA, Jumbo, ARM, etc as well as being based on how much equity. Lower rates for 20%+ equity, higher rates for lower equity. In our case we only refi'd because we had a 10yr ARM that had 3 years left on it before it could adjust and we though we'd take advantage of the current rates because who knows where rates will be in 3 years. It was a 5/1 ARM which means the rate could go up 1% everyyear to a max of 5% over the base rate, so up to 10.25%. Our previous rate was 5.25% and our current one is 5.125% but that's because we have a Jumbo loan.

A standard conventional loan (under 417K) has current rates around 4% depending on where you look. The new 30 yr loan saves us $200/month over the old one. We won't be in this house 30 years, probably another 15 at most. Our current goal is to really pay off our HELOC quickly. We used most of it to pay for college for our boys.

And speaking of rates, our very first home we bought in 1982 (1200 sq ft townhouse) had an interest rate of 15.5%. Rates hit 18% at one point during that timeframe. We refi'd that in 1983 to 12.5% and we thought we'd hit the jackpot as it saved us $100/month. As a result of that interest rate we've never been afraid to purchase a house and have refi'd to get lower rates in every home, although never a 3% rate drop again.

 

[sameyeyam]

I refinanced last year with our credit union. It took approximately 4 days from start to finish. All I had to do was fax a copy of our property tax statement to them to show that the house was assessed at less then what we were borrowing. No appraisal, no points, just about $40 in closing fees.

I have no idea why anybody would choose to finance with a bank or mortgage loan company and pay thousands of dollars in fees, have to justify every single penny and wait months to close.