refinance

[disneymagicgirl]

That is awesome! We were going to refinance this month but our house didn't appraise. We bought 10 months ago and the house appraised at $355,000. We just needed it to still appraise for $335,000 to avoid paying P&I. It appraised for $318,000. So freaking frustrating. Supposedly we are in a "good" area of Phoenix as far as houses retaining value. We plan on living here for 20+ years, so we didn't care that much about month to month fluctuations- but geez, $37,000 in 10 months??

ETA- we weren't going to have to pay any closing costs for staying with Wells Fargo. Our only cost was for the appraiser.

I contacted wells fargo b/c our current loan is with them and they were useless! How did you get them to offer to pay closing costs?

 

[dvcgirl]

We refinanced last friday for 4.25% on a 15 year. we were very happy with that. it's going to save us about $ 150 / month. Plus, since we already had our mortgage w/ that bank, they paid ALL closing costs. Nothing added to our mortgage at all.

Well, they "paid" all of your closing costs, but your rate is a bit above market, and so they built those closing costs into the rate. There's no such thing as a free lunch....

 

[Dewy]

I would love to refi too. The only thing I worry about is that DW was laid off 6 months ago and still without work. How tight are the qualifications? We bought in 7/2005, rate is 5.375%. Even though we bough at the market high we still have over 50% equity.

What do you think???

 

[blanq]

We have a Well's Fargo mortgage (15 year at 4.75%). I checked their website, and as of Friday, they were posting rates of 3.75% for a 15 year. They are offering a streamlined refi for existing mortgage customers that states there is no appraisal fee or closing costs. It's a no cash-out refi though, but we have no need to tap into the equity on our home for other things, so for us this may be a great deal. I am definately checking into it further on Monday.

Dewy, you won't be out anything to check into a refi. You do have a lot of equity, which should be a huge positive. You may have enough income to qualify without income from DW to qualify, but won't know unless you to a bit of leg work. Go for it!

 

[DawnM]

We refinanced in December of last year for 4.37% for a 15 year. We pay MORE every month, but amoritized we save $150K so we are looking at the long term savings.

I would love to get a 3% or lower on a 10 year though! Waiting for the rates to keep dropping!

Dawn

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We have a Well's Fargo mortgage (15 year at 4.75%). I checked their website, and as of Friday, they were posting rates of 3.75% for a 15 year. They are offering a streamlined refi for existing mortgage customers that states there is no appraisal fee or closing costs. It's a no cash-out refi though, but we have no need to tap into the equity on our home for other things, so for us this may be a great deal. I am definately checking into it further on Monday.

Dewy, you won't be out anything to check into a refi. You do have a lot of equity, which should be a huge positive. You may have enough income to qualify without income from DW to qualify, but won't know unless you to a bit of leg work. Go for it!

We just tried to do the "streamline" thru wells fargo. It is misleading regarding closing costs/fees. They will pay your closing costs, but they will also raise your rate ".5 to .875%" more than what it would be if you paid the closing costs. They also fail to mention that they charge a 1% origination fee, etc etc etc. All in all, it was going to cost us about $12K to refi our loan...and they are our current lender! We have a FHA PMI premium of around $5K that you could subtract from that if it doesn't apply, but still....$7K?? Crazy! I said no thanks! I wouldn't mind refinancing w/ a different company just to get away from greedy wells fargo!

 

[Skatermom23]

For those looking to refi, make sure you check with any credit unions you may have access to. When I was calling around last week, the CU's had the best offers.

 

[IDoDis]

We have a Well's Fargo mortgage (15 year at 4.75%). I checked their website, and as of Friday, they were posting rates of 3.75% for a 15 year. They are offering a streamlined refi for existing mortgage customers that states there is no appraisal fee or closing costs. It's a no cash-out refi though, but we have no need to tap into the equity on our home for other things, so for us this may be a great deal. I am definately checking into it further on Monday.

Dewy, you won't be out anything to check into a refi. You do have a lot of equity, which should be a huge positive. You may have enough income to qualify without income from DW to qualify, but won't know unless you to a bit of leg work. Go for it!

I tried doing this with Wells Fargo a year ago but found out my state does not qualify for the free refi. Wells Fargo has some states excluded from this deal and NM happens to be one of those states, even though there's no indication of it on the WF website. Since we only have about 75K left on our mortgage, it was going to cost us a higher rate to refinance! That's crazy because we have perfect credit (highest scores the car dealership we bought a car at said they have ever seen). But because the amount of the loan was under 130K, we were thrown into a "higher risk" category. Go figure. We've always paid extra on our mortgage to get it paid off sooner and because we don't owe a ton of money, our payback is a higher mortgage rate!

I guess we'll just continue to pay extra each month and not refinance even though we could save a bunch by getting a lower 15 yr. rate!

 

[blanq]

We just tried to do the "streamline" thru wells fargo. It is misleading regarding closing costs/fees. They will pay your closing costs, but they will also raise your rate ".5 to .875%" more than what it would be if you paid the closing costs. They also fail to mention that they charge a 1% origination fee, etc etc etc. All in all, it was going to cost us about $12K to refi our loan...and they are our current lender! We have a FHA PMI premium of around $5K that you could subtract from that if it doesn't apply, but still....$7K?? Crazy! I said no thanks! I wouldn't mind refinancing w/ a different company just to get away from greedy wells fargo!

Well, thanks so much for posting your experience! I knew about the origination fee, and assumed there would be a credit report fee. I think I will still check it out to see what the exact numbers would be for our situation.

 

[mrsklamc]

For those looking to refi, make sure you check with any credit unions you may have access to. When I was calling around last week, the CU's had the best offers.

This, especially those that mentioned being unable to refinance due to PMI. Our credit union doesn't do PMI.

 

[silmarg]

I tried doing this with Wells Fargo a year ago but found out my state does not qualify for the free refi. Wells Fargo has some states excluded from this deal and NM happens to be one of those states, even though there's no indication of it on the WF website. Since we only have about 75K left on our mortgage, it was going to cost us a higher rate to refinance! That's crazy because we have perfect credit (highest scores the car dealership we bought a car at said they have ever seen). But because the amount of the loan was under 130K, we were thrown into a "higher risk" category. Go figure. We've always paid extra on our mortgage to get it paid off sooner and because we don't owe a ton of money, our payback is a higher mortgage rate!

I guess we'll just continue to pay extra each month and not refinance even though we could save a bunch by getting a lower 15 yr. rate!

You might want to consider getting a home equity line of credit ("HELOC"). Most HELOCs dont have any closing costs. Their interest rates are usually variable, but I dont see rates rising anytime soon. So assuming you have at least $75k of equity in your home and are willing to take the interest rate risk, you may want to consider a HELOC to pay off the 1st mortgage.

This is basically what we did. We got a $200k HELOC a while ago that was 50 or 75 bps under prime with zero closing costs.. We never tapped it. But when the rate on the HELOC dropped to 2.49%, we paid off the remaining $115k 1st mortgage with it. We have been making the same monthly payment on the HELOC that we were paying the on the 1st mortgage, so each month there is a noticeable reduction in the principal. We are down to $89k of principal - and I can see a glimmer of light (aka the final payoff of the note) at the end of the tunnel.

 

[ljknecht570]

We were on a 30 year a 5.99. We were 7 years into it. Refi last week at 3.75 for 15 year! YEA!

 

[IDoDis]

You might want to consider getting a home equity line of credit ("HELOC"). Most HELOCs dont have any closing costs. Their interest rates are usually variable, but I dont see rates rising anytime soon. So assuming you have at least $75k of equity in your home and are willing to take the interest rate risk, you may want to consider a HELOC to pay off the 1st mortgage.

This is basically what we did. We got a $200k HELOC a while ago that was 50 or 75 bps under prime with zero closing costs.. We never tapped it. But when the rate on the HELOC dropped to 2.49%, we paid off the remaining $115k 1st mortgage with it. We have been making the same monthly payment on the HELOC that we were paying the on the 1st mortgage, so each month there is a noticeable reduction in the principal. We are down to $89k of principal - and I can see a glimmer of light (aka the final payoff of the note) at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will do some research on this.

 

[ICF]

We are in the process of doing a refi from a 30 year at 5 3/8 down to a 20 year at 4 3/8. The closing costs were only $325!!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We are in the process of doing a refi from a 30 year at 5 3/8 down to a 20 year at 4 3/8. The closing costs were only $325!!

What mortgage co did you go with?

 

[cvrapclark]

Does anyone know when you have a HELOC if that is supposed to show as revolving credit on your report even though it is secured credit? Mine is on revolving and therefore lowering my credit score.

 

[left210]

For those of you getting 3.25% or lower rates, what companies are you going with?

 

[ICF]

What mortgage co did you go with?

Union Savings Bank here in Indianapolis. I think they only operate in few midwestern states.

http://www.unionsavings-bank.com/

 

[silmarg]

For those of you getting 3.25% or lower rates, what companies are you going with?

I got my HELOC at prime minus 50bps several years ago (before the market blew up and they were giving mortgages away).

 

[blanq]

We just tried to do the "streamline" thru wells fargo. It is misleading regarding closing costs/fees. They will pay your closing costs, but they will also raise your rate ".5 to .875%" more than what it would be if you paid the closing costs. They also fail to mention that they charge a 1% origination fee, etc etc etc. All in all, it was going to cost us about $12K to refi our loan...and they are our current lender! We have a FHA PMI premium of around $5K that you could subtract from that if it doesn't apply, but still....$7K?? Crazy! I said no thanks! I wouldn't mind refinancing w/ a different company just to get away from greedy wells fargo!

I just got off the phone with Wells Fargo (called my local branch and the banker I have used for a previous refi), and was told that I do qualify for the streamlined refi and it does not cost a penny (no fees whatsoever)...just 5 minutes on the phone and they would reset the rate from 4.75 to 4.375%, which would save me $138.10/mo. To qualify for the 3.75% rate I would need to do a regular refinance, paying closing costs, etc.