Re: Refinancing Again!
You either got very lucky or they changed the review process considerably since you refinanced your home.
We closed on our new house yesterday. This is after it was rescheduled four times in the past 3 days due to the 2nd and 3rd party reviews now required on all conventional loans taking longer than expected. They did three appraisals, four credit checks at various times throughout the process and I had to write two different letters explaining how I could be employed by a company in MA yet lived in MD. All this for someone who has worked for the same company for 34 years, has an 800+ credit rating and put 75% down on the property.
Congrats on the closing. Our refi was completed August of 2010. We had a straightforward scenario. My job is steady, I earn a substantial salary, we have no debt except the mortgage and have high credit score. It was clear that, that didn't apply to most folks who were applying for mortgages according to the mortgage person I was dealing with at Amerisave. We had friends at the time trying to do the same but were struggling. Most were trying to take cash out or roll their cabin into the mortgage or something less straightforward. The only thing that came up that could have possibly derailed was how the appraisal came back. Since we bought in 2002, the boom hadn't taken off to its astronomical highs and so the combo of a large down payment plus several years of payments and we were ok. The appraisal came back at 10k more than we paid for the house so 7+ years and we were at the same number as when we bought...basically even Steven. There was no FHA involvement just a straightforward, conventional, 15 year mortgage. The kicker was within a month or so, the mortgage was quickly sold right back to our previous mortgage company.
Just for fun, I ran some numbers on 30 year mortgages this weekend. We owe around 250k on the house now sadly worth 400k down from much higher at the peaks. They are still building homes in my town in the 775k range which used to be a $1M home a few years back. I could literally buy one of those 775k homes, put 20% down, get a 30 year mortgate at today's rate and pay not much more than my current payment. The issues boil down to expenses. Realtor expenses assuming there are any buyers, the "fees" for the 30 year mortgate amounted to a jawdropping $30,000 to get the lowest rate. Of course, I'm not interested in taking out a Jumbo mortgage to move a mile away, downsizing, moving farther from the school now a half block away, moving farther from the lake now 3 blocks away, and of course the biggee, paying triple the property taxes. I could swallow all the rest but the taxes never end even when you pay the house off.
