Refinancing anyone?

[DCJenn]

We locked in at a 3.5% interest rate (what? How is that even possible?) and have elected to have a 15 year conventional loan vs a 30 year loan- our payment will actually only increase by $400/mo.

The appraiser comes on Friday morning- the housing prices have held steady in the historic district so- cross your fingers and send the mojo!

Jenn

[Momo]

fingers crossed!

[weeniegeniewife]

Wow Jenn, that rocks!! Keeping all fingers and toes crossed for a good appraisal. We want to refi but the market is crap in our area right now. Good luck!

[houseelf]

Yep, we are trying to do the same right now. We need a good appraisal too. I have every finger crossed for both of us. In our case, it would save us about $300,000 interest paid over the lifetime of the loan.

I *really* am pulling myself up by the financial bootstraps right now. It sucks to be the grown up and say, "No we can't finish the basement because we need to pay down debt and save 20% for retirement". Holy crap, how did I become the grown up?

Fingers crossed for both of you!

[Vanquisher]

We're going to try to refinance ASAP as well. It will likely need to wait 3-6 months.

[Vanquisher]

Any recommendations for good banks/lenders to check into?

We just refi'd last year and have considered doing it again but we're going to wait. The fed has said the rates aren't going up at least until 2013, and we're constantly on the fence as to whether we'll stay in this house and remodel or go out and build. I don't want to pay closing costs again, etc. just to decide in a year we need to start all over and get a construction loan or something. As it is, w/last year's refi, we went down more than 2%, so we'd be looking at about 1% more reduction. Not peanuts, but not something that would require a quick trigger, either.

[alison]

I hope it pans out for your, Jenn.
My dh was telling me that a guy in his group is refinancing his home too, and just had the appraiser come.

[samssugarmomma]

Good luck!!

[Phoebe]

Our mortgage guy just called us. We can drop our payment by $222/month which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. However, we need every dime we can get and he is paying 99% percent of closing costs.

[Flynn]

We refinanced about three months ago. It worked because we bought a foreclosed property and put some money into it so the appraisal was higher than the sold price.

It saves us about 300 a month but it didn't cost us a dime and we got money back in a mortgage credit AND a check. Crazy. Our mortgage is now less than our rent was last year. Love that!

[Pollyanna]

We are currently in the process and holy crap it is WAY different than it was a few years back. The first time we did a refi it took no more than two weeks and they didn't need near the amount of paper work they are asking for now and we have a lot of equity in our home.

[houseelf]

The good news is that our credit scores have gone through the roof since we should up at our last closing with that large check in hand.

I swear I still get heart palpitations every time we apply for credit. I have to remind myself that we're not in school or training anymore.