Refinancing mortgage in today's market?

Question

Is it possible to refinance in today's market? I want to refinance our mortgage which is an ARM to a 30- yr fixed. But some people say it's not possible since market's bad. And the value of the house went down.

Answer 1

You need to get the house appraised, in order to find out. However, you need to have you mortgage broker order the appraisal, rather then to order it yourself.  The broker needs to use primary source info for the loan.  Therefore, broker can not use appraisal that you furnish. That appraisal would have to be re-assigned, and that costs money.  Thus, you are best getting the appraisal through the broker.

Answer 2

No question that it's tougher.  But if your credit is good, above 700 with no negative payment history and you're not carrying a lot of other debt, AND, the value of your house has not dropped below 110% of the existing mortgage balance, you should be OK.  It does depend on where you live, too.  The housing market is not bad everywhere.

Answer 3

DO NOT REFINANCE!  The amount of fees involved in a refinance is totally not worth it (5-6% in closing costs alone!). Your results are not guaranteed and majority of the time the borrower does not end up very happy with the result of the refi. Keep in mind you also have to have good credit to even be approved for a refinance. You can get the same results, if not better results from having a loan modification done (as long as you have proper legal council representing you, of course.) From what you stated already, I can tell that you will be able to qualify for one. They will be able to get you out of that interest only loan and have your payments deduct from the principal this way the loan will actually be getting paid off over time. I can only speak from my own experience but when my home was in the process of being foreclosed on a few months back I thankfully sought help through the American Modification Agency. They stopped the foreclosure process and saved my home by doing a loan modification (I wouldn't have been able to qualify for a refi even if I wanted to). Now, my family and I are now living comfortably at home and with the peace of mind knowing that there are people out there who can help others, as they did us. They are an attorney driven firm, and practice in all 50 states as well which is cool. Give my advisor a call, his name is Kevin Pugliese [phone] x 2170. He can definitely help you, as he did me. Let me know how everything goes. Wish you the best.