March 7th, 2010
I always felt like an “Interest Only” loan (where you pay no principal and are only making the interest payments on the loan) was like taking your house and putting it on a credit card. I was never a big fan of these loans, and as a result never did many because clients always sensed my unease, and ended up going to the competition who talked these loans up as a great way to “get in the market.”
I thought the Interest Only loan has been put to bed, and no one was doing them anymore. I did not think any client wanted them, nor did I think many banks offered them. But, I was surprised when an old client of mine said he was approached by a lender to refinance from his fixed rate mortgage to an Interest Only loan. Huh? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Refinance To An Interest Only Loan?
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January 7th, 2010
This blog post will definitely be educational, and does have a specific topic. However, it will end up sounding like more of a rant than anything! The topic for today’s blog post is a loan program called the “Refinance Plus.”
The Refinance Plus allows people to refinance who have less equity than when they bought the home. There are numerous guidelines that I will not bore you with, as I want to focus my rant/blog on one specific area of this loan program. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Refinance Plus
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November 5th, 2009
When you refinance your existing mortgage, if you have a home equity line or 2nd trust, the new bank will want a subordination agreement. What is this? Is a subordination agreement some sort of mortgage gibberish, or something that is really needed?
A subordination agreement is something that shows the 2nd trust lender will ’subordinate’, or stay in 2nd trust place, when the 1st trust refinance takes place. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: subordination agreement
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November 2nd, 2009
There are a lot of questions about refinancing, or at least there should be. The questions a consumer should be asking of a mortgage professional are:
1. What are the closing costs I have to spend to refinance?
2. Can I finance those costs into the new loan amount?
3. How much would I save by refinancing?
4. How long has the mortgage firm been licensed?
5. How long has the individual mortgage professional been licensed? And how long have they been with their current firm?
6. If you are being offered a “no closing cost” loan, are the costs simply being built into the rate so that you are paying simply paying a higher rate in trade for no costs?
7. What happens if your appraisal comes in lower than expected?
8. Will you be required to pay mortgage insurance?
9. If you have mortgage insurance on your current loan can you drop it?
10. How long is the interest rate locked-in for, and what is the turn around time on loan processing, underwriting, and loan document preparation?
And the questions that you “should” be asked by a mortgage professional are: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: refinance questions
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October 29th, 2009
Should I refinance? It seems like an easy question, doesn’t it? But I have read and heard so many different stories, rules of thumb, and methods to calculate whether or not one should refinance it is mind boggling. It is simple, forget all of the rules of thumb that you have heard.
Refinancing is all about asking yourself how much do you have to spend to refinance, and how much would you save. Figuring out what the recapture period is will help you decide if you should refinance or not. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: refinance analysis
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