Are you thinking about refinancing?

[Julie Rains]

Originally Posted by singlemomindebt

Not to be Ms. Gloom and Doom, but I've had a few friends in the banking industry mention the high number of people who are coming in to refinance with 1 or 2 year old 100% financing mortgages who are being denied upon appraisal. Housing prices are dropping and some folks are discovering that the new prices are lower than what they have for a mortgage. Banks don't allow refinancing if you don't have enough for collateral. I'm not saying it's not worth a try, but don't be shocked if this is a situation you're in...

Sarah

That's true that housing prices may have declined in your area the past year or so, and obviously could impact refinancing. Other than asking your neighbors and/or real estate agents (who may or may not want to share that info), real estate sales are publicly recorded transactions so you can often visit (online) property records to see the latest in valuations and prices for your neighborhood.

[anitra]

We definitely won't refinance now; we just bought our house last spring (5% down), so it wouldn't be worth the additional cost.

Now, in another two years, when we have our second mortgage paid off, THEN we might re-finance the first mortgage.

[Ginger]

Nah I doubt it. We already have a 5.35% rate and unless we can get at least 2 points lower then we are staying put.

[72Tiger]

My house is actually paid off!

[refi09]

We are thinking about refinancing our less than one-year old loan (bought in June '08). We would be refinancing with our original lender, who sold our mortgage to another company shortly after we closed. We would be coming down from 6.25% to 4.87%, saving about $250 a month.

I'm confused about something on the good faith estimate we received and I was wondering if anybody knew the answer to my question, before I ask the lender (don't want to look too uninformed!):

The estimated prepaid items include 14 payments of hazard insurance and 8 payments of county property taxes. The prepaid items and the majority of the closing costs are being rolled into the loan (we wouldn't have that kind of money upfront anyway.) Since the 14 and 8 payments are part of the prepayment items, should they also show up in our monthly payments? They do on the GFE, and to me that seems like we are paying it twice.

Also, after the rolling in of the costs and prepaid items, our loan amount is almost back up to what we financed when we bought the place. Doesn't this mean we essentially rented for the last year? We didn't pay down much of the principle of course, because we have been paying for less than a year, so maybe that doesn't make too much of a difference?

[Xin Lu]

Originally Posted by refi09

We are thinking about refinancing our less than one-year old loan (bought in June '08). We would be refinancing with our original lender, who sold our mortgage to another company shortly after we closed. We would be coming down from 6.25% to 4.87%, saving about $250 a month.

I'm confused about something on the good faith estimate we received and I was wondering if anybody knew the answer to my question, before I ask the lender (don't want to look too uninformed!):

The estimated prepaid items include 14 payments of hazard insurance and 8 payments of county property taxes. The prepaid items and the majority of the closing costs are being rolled into the loan (we wouldn't have that kind of money upfront anyway.) Since the 14 and 8 payments are part of the prepayment items, should they also show up in our monthly payments? They do on the GFE, and to me that seems like we are paying it twice.

Also, after the rolling in of the costs and prepaid items, our loan amount is almost back up to what we financed when we bought the place. Doesn't this mean we essentially rented for the last year? We didn't pay down much of the principle of course, because we have been paying for less than a year, so maybe that doesn't make too much of a difference?

It sounds like that they're going to roll the taxes and hazard insurance into the loan and pay off these charges for at least this year. Usually when you refinance they want to make sure you have valid insurance and the current installment of taxes is paid off. It probably shows up on your monthly payment because you have an impound account for those charges. So you still have to make those payments, but it would fund the impound account for future payments. You are probably not paying it twice, but your monthly payments for those things will be used for the next insurance/tax installments after the refinance. You should definitely ask your loan officer about anything you don't understand, though. Ask them which period of tax/insurance your prepaid will pay for, and ask for some details about the impound account.

Also you should make sure that you haven't paid insurances/taxes yet. Generally the rule is that they want to make sure insurance/taxes that are due in the next six months are paid off. When I refinanced in February they tried to add taxes/insurance to my prepaid in the GFE but I already paid them off for the rest of the year so I didn't need to pay it again because nothing was due for another 10 months. So, make sure that you understand what the prepaids are for because people do make mistakes, but when you ask them about it you can sort it out.

[The Zoo]

Xin - are you in the Bay Area? We just refinanced from 6.25% to 4.875%. We had to pay a percentage of a point but it was worth it in the long run since we'll be saving $400 a month. Extra money will go to investment, savings and to pay the increase in our earthquake insurance.

[Xin Lu]

Yes I'm in the Bay Area, we got a refi from 5.875 to 4.875% and we're saving around $200 a month. It was a Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae streamline refinance and we did pay some fees, but it was still worthwhile. Your loan must be a lot bigger than mine to save that much. We don't have earthquake insurance, though, just fire.

I wrote about the details here if you're interested: http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2009...ine-refinance/

[starshard0]

I don't have a mortgage to refinance, thank goodness.

[rony1434]

Hi all.
I am also thinking of getting my car refinanced.
I have never done this before and yesterday While searching on internet i found a website http://www.720auto.com/, Is this website really good for refinancing of car loan with fair credit?