Re-Fi closes, 3.5% Fixed for 30

[CAwireman]

A loooooong refi, at least it felt that way. It went about 3 weeks longer than it was supposed to and the lender paid any fees associated with going past the lock periods.

Some interesting points/rants:

– The appraisal was $30K below what we paid for it. When we bought, it appraised for $30K more than we paid for it. The diff? Appraisal indicated more seller concessions, at least for our area. And, oddly enough, its now in much better shape than it was when we bought it. Also, some properties in our class sold with some unexpectedly short haircuts.
– We found a lien placed against the property and cleared it. Anyone know of a service that monitor’s lien status for you property for a monthly fee? Might be worth it…
– We choose our Escrow company, which was nice.
– Double check everything! There are so many forms to sign that errors are nearly gauranteed. Learned this from our initial purchase and it paid dividends. We caught errors early before they could have any effect on the loan. When the process went long, it wasn’t our fault, so the broker/bank didn’t ding us.
– When you’re going through a Refi, the pressure is far, far less pronounced in comparison to the original purchase. The Refi feels like a walk in the park. With a purchase, you don’t fully know if it will go through, and if it does, you uproot your family and worldy possesions from one property, and move it to another abrubptly.
– If you call your bank to inquire about a Refi, you get a very different answer than your mortgage broker gets. Simply put, the deck is stacked againsty you if you want to work directly with the bank in obtaining a Refi. You are nearly obligated to go to a broker to even come close to a competitive, lower interest rate. Spoke to Wells, BofA, Suntrust, and one other can’t recall. The best they could do for no points? 4.1 – 4.2%. And they swore that was competitive. Had to go with a small broker to get a competitive interest rate.
– So far, I don’t trust online brokers. I may need to get over this to get the best possible rate for our “next refi”. Went with a local broker I had worked with in the past.
– I know others who did better than 3.5%. All a matter of timing and picking the most competitive broker. If rates drop further, will I refi again? Absolutely! My next target is 2.75%, fixed, 30 year. My total new monthly, including impounds is less than what I was paying to rent a swank 2 bedroom apartment in Carmel Vally. Our home a detached 5-bedroom (but, in North county…)
– Actual monthly drop in cost? ~ $200. Had estimated $225. But, I think the bank impounds more money for the first year, just to be safe. They then true-up annually, and send you a check for any overages (which happened this year, and we got a check for $850, followed by about a $60/month lower mortgage bill due to recasting the impounds…)so, I’m hoping next year our impounds will settle out and result in a $30/month decrease or thereabouts.
– Is it worth it? To us, we are positioning ourselves to weather any upcoming personal, national, global financial storms, and the option of lowering our monthly mortgage payment is huge. Also helps open up the window to paying it off much earlier than 30 years. So hell yeah, its worth it.

If you’re out there looking for a refi – happy hunting.

[Coronita]

any fees and points?

I’m on a 15 year, but looking at the rates of a 30 year, my monthly would be a joke…Around $1600/month for a 5-3 in carmel v.

[NotCranky]

Refi- appraisals are frequently low, especially if the LTV is easy to get to. I wouldn’t consider that FMV necessarily..it could be.

Good Job.

[Diego Mamani]

[quote=CAwireman]Re-Fi closes, 3.5% Fixed for 30[/quote]
That’s a great rate! Unbelievable. To think that only 10 years ago, a 6% rate was considered a “steal”… Is your loan conforming, jumbo, etc.? What is your LTV? My loan is currently $566K and LTV is a little under 80%; I wonder whether I’d qualify for 3.5% rate. (Is your APR also 3.5%?)

[quote]- We found a lien placed against the property and cleared it. Anyone know of a service that monitor’s lien status for you property for a monthly fee? Might be worth it…[/quote]The county recorder should have this… and you don’t need to check every month. Was that a mechanic’s lien that you had?

[quote]- Double check everything! There are so many forms to sign that errors are nearly gauranteed.[/quote]
I don’t know, when the notary came to our house the last time we refinanced, just signing everything took forever. Had I read the stuff, it would have taken me hours… I did check the numbers quickly, and asked some questions.

[quote]- If you call your bank to inquire about a Refi, you get a very different answer than your mortgage broker gets (…) Spoke to Wells, BofA, Suntrust, and one other can’t recall. The best they could do for no points? 4.1 – 4.2%. And they swore that was competitive. Had to go with a small broker to get a competitive interest rate.[/quote]My experience with WF and Citi was disappointing. They offered me a good rate, but after days or weeks of waiting and sending my supporting documentation, they asked me to reduce the LTV, or changed something else… very frustrating. We switched to OnQ Financial, a smallish direct lender, and we’ve had no problems with them.

[quote]- So far, I don’t trust online brokers. I may need to get over this to get the best possible rate for our “next refi”. Went with a local broker I had worked with in the past.[/quote]+1

[scaredyclassic]

someday 3.5 is going to sound weirdly low.

[Hatfield]

For most of my life, 3.5 has sounded weirdly low.

[moneymaker]

Sounds similar to our refi. We shaved off a little over 1% but ended up paying $100 more a month,switched from 30 to a 20. The weird thing is we used an online broker found on Costco’s site and ended up with US Bank, where I already have an account. Seems to me that if US Bank would have just approached us directly they could have cut out the middleman. One weird thing that I read in the contract and I’m sure it’s probably in a lot of them is that a second mortgage is not allowed. For us it makes no difference as we have no plan to get a second but for people planning to add an addition or put in solar it might be a bitter pill to swallow.

[CAwireman]

Flu – I think you are in a different financial realm than I perhaps. 15 Yr would be great, but the monthly patyments would be too hight to handle, especially if our income wobbled. Our monthly before impounds it about $1,800. Not too shabby.

[CAwireman]

4.25 was weird enough, so 3.5 is now our new, short-term, weird – until 2.75 or whatever arrives. 😀

[CAwireman]

DM – I thought 3.5% was great too because originally, I thought 3.625 was the lowest zero-point loan I could get. Then, whatever – twist, shout, it dropped. But, I know other people who nabbed 3.25 or 3.1. So, I’m envious…

[CAwireman]

Yeah MM – no 2nds for us. We aren’t planning to take out any additional loans, property-wise.

Once we pay off our current car payment, then its just the mortgage and monthly untilies/credit card bills.

I take the Dave Ramsey, live like no one else….

PS: yeah, not sure why banks dont’ approach directly for refi. Must be some reason.

[CAwireman]

[quote=Blogstar]Refi- appraisals are frequently low, especially if the LTV is easy to get to. I wouldn’t consider that FMV necessarily..it could be.

Good Job.[/quote]

Thanks, and here’s to the next one.

I went back and got a copy of the orignial appraisal from our purcahse in early 2011. I’ll try to carve out time to compare the two.

[Author]

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