Posted on 05/27/2012 6:11:39 AM PDT by w4women
Happy Memorial Day! Need advice from FRiends as we are looking to refinance our 2nd home mortgage. Our mortgage already was purchased by Fannie Mae (we found this out by accident). Quicken Loans, which is HARP approved (Home Affordable Refinance Program), offers 4.375% 30-year fixed, (we're paying 5.625% currently), total fees $1900. Loan amount $300k.
Thank you in advance!
Are you able to repay sooner than the 30 year term? About half your refi benefit is getting eaten up in fees.
bump to piggy back on advice given. thanks
Yes we can accelerate payments on the principle.
Have you gotten your FICO credit score? You don’t need to post it here, but that rate and closing seem a little high for someone with good credit from what I’ve heard and just read on bankrate.com.
“Yes we can accelerate payments on the principle.”
See if you can’t get flexible repayment schedule. You might get a higher rate but you’ll make back the difference rather quickly.
Since rates for seconds homes seem to be hoovering around 3.9-4.1% your offered rate seems high.
You are benefited if you recover the fees in 18 months or less.
Rate is high because it is a second/vacation home ... You have indicated you can add to principal ,, you should look at a 15 or 20 year loan ... If you are substantially underwater have you attempted to negotiate principal reduction? If you haven’t why not? You should look at all options ... ditch this property if appropriate and buy identical house in same neighborhood for $$LESS$$ ..
OK , I thought so ... Quicken Loans wrote a huge number of loans where the lender was misidentified on the docs as “Americas Wholesale Lender” or “AWL” a trade name / corp identity that was never registered ... same as having a mortgage with “Elmer Fudd” as the lender... GET YOUR DOCS OUT AND INSPECT THEM.
You may not owe anybody anything ,, contact a lawyer and do some research ... you may have WAY MORE leverage than you think and by refinancing you will be throwing that away... An act so stupid it should be criminal to consider.
We are not underwater. Comps in our neighborhood are in line with what we paid 3 years ago. We bought the house from owner under stress.
We are in the middle of a re-fi for just over $400k.
Rate is 3.875% . You should be able to get your rate down to about 4%.
Frequently local lenders will have better rates than the on-line guys.
Since you bought after 2008 forget most of what I said... go for best rate at lowest number of years... If this is a primary residence you can do better.
I would do some research on Quicken Loans. Run a google search on “quicken loans ripoff”
Rules changed for second home mortgages in April of 2011. They can no longer charge more on the interest.
http://www.secondshelters.com/2011/07/14/good-time-refinance-homes/
Calculate what your final total would be on it if you made extra payments on the principal vs. a shorter term (15 years) vs. higher rate with lower points and/or fees. Those fees you’ve been quoted seem high. Obviously, go with the lowest final total and make sure you make those extra payments.
IMO, he's better off with a 30-year mortgage - as long as he can add to principal. We always did this, and then paid extra. The thinking being that if some financial event occurred, we still had the buffer of a lower payment; if everything went OK, we ended up with a 20-year equivalent.
If he does go that route, find a mortgage calculator and figure out which extra payment gets the biggest bang for the buck. Before year 2000, we used a neat freebie called "Mortplan".
I would sit down and figure what an extra $50 a month would do and watch the months left drop like a rock. I kept incrementing by $10 until I either hit my limit or found that the extra didn't make that much difference, and then applied it elsewhere.
Shop around — this sounds too high to me.
Scroll allthe way down - on the bottom right you find the current mortgage rates.
30 yr refi is 3.8%
They give you a link to
where you can find rates in your area.
I recommend you check those out.
I think you need to clarify “2nd home mortgage” — seems like some people interpret it as a 2nd TD on your house, others that you have a “2nd home”, i.e. vacation home. My guess was that you are refinancing your home for the 2nd time.
Please clarify — it makes a difference in what interest rate is resonable.
I have a friend who took out a 2nd and a 3rd and who knows what else bringing her obligation to $1.2 million.
She stopped paying her mortgage for a year and through whatever financing is available is now paying less per month than her original mortgage!
Can you believe this Shiite?
I dealt with them...for about 2 days then backed out of their “deal”.
total ripoff artists.
Stuck with US Bank and have been quite satisfied.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.