We finally did it - refinanced our home

[JamesMom]

Thanks to all the posts on this board, we finally researched and got approved today to refinance our home.

We are going from a 30-yr fixed 6.25% to a 15 year fixed 3.75 paying only $100 more a month and cutting 8 years off our original loan! Yippee!

We have talked for a good year about doing and finally got off our duffs and did it.

Thanks for keeping the posts alive to remind us to take advantage of good deals when they are available.

 

[daisy2jae]

congrats!

 

[lisaross]

GREAT RATE...Congrats!!

Thanks to all the posts on this board, we finally researched and got approved today to refinance our home.

We are going from a 30-yr fixed 6.25% to a 15 year fixed 3.75 paying only $100 more a month and cutting 8 years off our original loan! Yippee!

We have talked for a good year about doing and finally got off our duffs and did it.

Thanks for keeping the posts alive to remind us to take advantage of good deals when they are available.

 

[mommy22pumpkins]

hello. Would you mind telling me which mortgage company or bank you went through. I am thinking of refinancing as well but don't know where to start.
thanks very much,
Danielle

 

[minpin3]

Congratulations! What a great feeling!!

 

[cvrapclark]

Would love to know who you went thru and what the closing costs ended up being. You have been in your house the same as me and we have a 6.25 too right now. We were trying to decide whether to refi or to sell. It looks like we might be going with the refi and staying where we are. The big problem we had was our bank wanted like $10K in closing costs!! We have now been actually talking to a mortgage company instead.

 

[Skatermom23]

I'm doing a refi as well. I went from 30 years at 5.125 to 15 years at 3.875. Closing costs are $2500. Check with your credit union.

 

[minnie1928]

For anyone with a Wells Fargo loan, they offer to refinance your existing mortgage at no cost. I had a mortgage at 5% and they called to see if I wanted to drop to 4.75% for free. I said sure! We are candidates for corporate relocation, so I didn't want to fork out any money for points, title work, etc.

With the new rate, the remaining 28.5 years on our mortgage will be paid off in less than 25 using the same payment amount, assuming we still have this house then.

 

[JamesMom]

OP here,

We are working with USAA. Our closing costs are around $2,000 not counting the prepaids and includes $300 to pay down the rate.

The bad news is that because of the economy our house appraisal came in short of 80% so we need to pay PMI. I'm a little bumbed because we paid 20% down to avoid this 7 years ago! But we will reach the threshold after only 22 payments and it is only $30 a month extra.

We close in 3 weeks!

 

[Kay1]

For anyone with a Wells Fargo loan, they offer to refinance your existing mortgage at no cost. I had a mortgage at 5% and they called to see if I wanted to drop to 4.75% for free. I said sure! We are candidates for corporate relocation, so I didn't want to fork out any money for points, title work, etc.

With the new rate, the remaining 28.5 years on our mortgage will be paid off in less than 25 using the same payment amount, assuming we still have this house then.

We started that free process about a month or so ago. We're going from 5.75% to 4.85%. So far it's been very simple.

 

[Swimalie]

Congrats! Our appraisal is in about 2 hours for our refinance. We didn't go through USAA although we checked with them. Their rates and fees were higher than others. We went through BB&T and we're getting a 30 year fixed at 4.5% with $4000 in closing costs (down from 5.75% with a mortgage company that we're not happy with). We've been in the house for 4 years and don't plan on being here a day longer than we have to be. The only thing I'm nervous about is the 20% equity now. We put down over 35% when we bought the house but the market has lost such value that we're right at the 20% now. They said we could pay the difference to bring it up to 20% and avoid PMI, though. If that is the case, it should only be $2000-3000 and we're willing to do that. Our payments will go down $290 a month!

Wish us luck today please! We've done a lot to fix up the house and we hope it shows.

 

[jessrose18]

we got our closing date for our refinance next friday It has been a lengthly process so far. We had usbank and carried pmi so we had to shop with them, we got a 4.9% for 30 years and no closing costs (higher apr instead) which cuts $130 off of our payment. Our house value on our pmi is actually better now than when we bought so now with 86% our pmi will also go down about $40 a month. We were told that with new refinance laws that people who did not currently carry pmi will not have to have it if their house appraises under 80% (in response to some previous posters) The info out there is so confusing, seems like we could never get a straight answer on anything. Asked if we got our escrow back at closing, answer yes, then no, he says I misunderstood. Asked if we could get cash out of loan, answer no, then three weeks later, yes i never asked him that. They asked for bank statement three different months and then asked me to get copies off all the checks I had deposited down to $100 deposits for underwriting. That took extra time. They also at the end of the process told us we had to have 2 month house payments in bank for underwriting. Ok after three months, I was fuming none of this was disclosed at the start. I felt like we were treated as if we were always suspicious. Keep in mind we have had usbank for 6 years and have never had a late payment and have a credit score of 800. Thats my rant. I know things are more strict nowadays, but the process was presented to us as simple, and its been nothing but. However, I cant wait to save some money and skip a house payment So in the end it was worth it...just some thoughts.