sam_gordon
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2010
- Messages
- 27,557
DW & I are looking to refinance. Not only do we want to lower our interest rate, but we'd like to get some "cash back" to do some maintenance on the house.
House is 10 years old (we bought it new). We are 3 1/2 years into a 30 year refinance (have 26 1/2 years left on this note). That rate is 4.75%
Option #1: In-state broker/direct lender (I know they'll sell our mortgage to someone else). They are offering 3.875% for a 30 year or a 25 year. $1200 closing costs.
Option #2: Out of state broker (they'll also sell the mortgage). They are offering 3.625% for 30 or 25 year. $1800 closing costs.
The woman in option 2 says we can only get cash back if our house appraises for enough.
The guy in option 1 says our house should appraise just fine.
Both options would require us to "prefund" escrow (about 8 month of taxes.
).
So, how do I decide between the two? I tried to look up reviews of both of them without a lot of luck. I think option #2 comes out to ~$60/month less in costs.
I don't want to pay a bunch of money and then find out the rates of changed or the house doesn't appraise for as much as we'd like/need. We'd need the house to appraise for only $5K more than what we paid 10 years ago for this to work out.
The "latest" home zillow.com has in our neighborhood was sold in May 2011 (there have been houses sold more recently, but they're not appearing on Zillow). So I don't know how to approximate the house value.
So, what questions do I ask now? Thoughts?
Thanks
House is 10 years old (we bought it new). We are 3 1/2 years into a 30 year refinance (have 26 1/2 years left on this note). That rate is 4.75%
Option #1: In-state broker/direct lender (I know they'll sell our mortgage to someone else). They are offering 3.875% for a 30 year or a 25 year. $1200 closing costs.
Option #2: Out of state broker (they'll also sell the mortgage). They are offering 3.625% for 30 or 25 year. $1800 closing costs.
The woman in option 2 says we can only get cash back if our house appraises for enough.
The guy in option 1 says our house should appraise just fine.
Both options would require us to "prefund" escrow (about 8 month of taxes.

So, how do I decide between the two? I tried to look up reviews of both of them without a lot of luck. I think option #2 comes out to ~$60/month less in costs.
I don't want to pay a bunch of money and then find out the rates of changed or the house doesn't appraise for as much as we'd like/need. We'd need the house to appraise for only $5K more than what we paid 10 years ago for this to work out.
The "latest" home zillow.com has in our neighborhood was sold in May 2011 (there have been houses sold more recently, but they're not appearing on Zillow). So I don't know how to approximate the house value.
So, what questions do I ask now? Thoughts?
Thanks