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GT1999 said:
Both me and my fiancee have great jobs and even we can't save 20%

I have noticed the cost of everything go up, especially food. And of course, gas.

We:
Never go out to eat, unless if you count $5-7 sandwich joints and even that's only 2-3x a month. We both pack our lunches.
One trip per year (only 1 trip in the 2 years we've been together...) where we didn't go out to eat very much
Don't gamble
Don't do drugs/alcohol/smoke
Cash in extra money from work (sick time from me which is $1k/year, she worked double bonus for two months straight, and I also do company stock at a discount which I've gained a lot from)
Don't have kids
Only have student loans and car debt, which for the most part are minimal

Who's supposed to be buying these houses again? I think we're going to see even more foreclosures, which is going to drive prices down even further. Lowering interest rates is the first part, but prices are going to keep going DOWN DOWN DOWN
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not to poke but how does this add up? if you both have great jobs, assuming that the pay is correspondingly great or at least well to do, and the rest is true where you spend little money, then where is the money going? retirement funds? or are you just referring to we cant do 20% in a short time period, ie: right now or is it that for the places you want 20% is some astronomical number? ya'll are in dink status, two incomes and no kids. should or could be banking fairly large numbers into savings or debt repayment.

edit- didnt read the earlier posts, some info filled in but still begs the same question where's all the money going if you're in the scenario you describe?
 
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I have a relatively small mortgage at a low rate so I need to make sure the closing costs are worth it, but right now it looks like I should be able to drop my monthly payment by at least $120, save around $20k in interest over the life of the loan and bring no money to the closing table. That's just BoA's offer, I can probably get something better from a local bank. Sweet.
 
ichy said:
No, if he wants to move in the next five years then renting is the right fit for him. Buying a house that you don't plan to live in for at least seven years is foolish.
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not to mention being single and willing to move, could happen very abruptly. noone wants to deal with trying to sell a house when they just landed thier dream job in another city for example. better to rent and save the money for when his scenario changes. then have the money to pay the downpayment.
 
I'll start shopping around for refi's and see what they can do. I'll try my existing company but I'm guessing their rates won't be competitive. What are some good sites besides Bankrate. Bankrate showed me 3 options for a 15 year refi. Used to be there was a ton of options on that site.
 
Aharami said:
thanks. will give them a call tomorrow. I'm paying 6.5% 😱
I never bothered looking into refi because I thought they require 80% LTV and I'm at like 90ish
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I got in some magical program pretty specific to my morgage (freddie mac?)..HARP was the program I think it was called...allows people to refi with 200% under. So if you owe 200k on a now worth 110k house, you can still refi. Something I can thank OBAMA for I heard.
 
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edro said:
Are these sub 4% numbers for refis? Or just new mortgages?
I have a rental at 5.375% and my house is at 4.875%.

I would love to get that rental down to 4%...
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My guess is that the best rates are for single family primary residence mortage refis. If this is secondary they usually charge more...but it's always worth a look.
 
You can get a rental down to around 4% rather easliy assuming you have 25% equity, or if you are lucky and have a Fannie Mae loan from before mid-2009, you can even have zero equity.

Shoot, if you have an FHA loan from before 5/2009, I can refinance your rental with no appraisal, no income, and the MI is not subject to the recent increases.
 
shortylickens said:
Am only just starting school.
Before that I was a comm tech in the Navy, worked at Hynix in Photolithography, and Tektronix fixing oscilloscopes.
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Get that degree and you will have it a lot easier.

It is tough finding a good engineering/technician job without a ton of experience or a degree.
There are so many recent college grads also competing with you.

All things being equal, a company will hire the college grad 100% of the time.

gj going back to school
 
OCGuy said:
You can get a rental down to around 4% rather easliy assuming you have 25% equity, or if you are lucky and have a Fannie Mae loan from before mid-2009, you can even have zero equity.

Shoot, if you have an FHA loan from before 5/2009, I can refinance your rental with no appraisal, no income, and the MI is not subject to the recent increases.
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We do, but because the loan amount is relatively low (<$100k), they said the lowest rate they could get was 4.25.
 
There's a few things that aren't really right here...

Vdubchaos said:
a) go with local small (reputable) bank or credit union /Stay away from big banks is the rule of thumb
Small banks and credit unions had noticeably worse rates when I was recently getting my mortgage and would have cost me hundreds extra a month. Also, getting your loan through a small bank is no guarantee that they'll hold on to it.

b) there is no going around/magic trick to PMI (like there used to be).

c) pull up "does it make sense to refinance" calculator> plug in the numbers and see how much you will save over 30 years and see when your break even point is.

d) remember, if you are moving within next 3-5 years...chances are, no point to refinance

e)Paying PMI might still save you TON of cash

f)don't EVER drop your mortgage from 30 years to 15 or 10. Just get 30 year mortgage and pay it like you would if you had 15 years. Sure it will cost you more in the long run but you ALWAYS have the option of paying LESS. Once you take out 10-15 year mortgage, there is no option....
Not good advice for everyone. Mortgages with shorter terms have lower rates. It could make sense for him, depending on his finances and his plans for the future.


My advice would be to save money so that you can put it down as a downpayment on a refinance to get you over 20% mark. If you are able to pay 10-15 year loan...you should have no problems of saving that money in relatively short amount of time.

Also, keep in mind there is always a room for Appraisal person to put the value of your house little higher (especially when you are refinancing), but don't count on it.

I'm a big believer in "if you don't have 20% down you cannot affort a house". In your case, if you don't have 20% equity/down payment you cannot afford to refinance.
He already owns the house. If he refinances and gets something that aligns better with his plans (lower payment including the PMI, paid off sooner, etc) it could be very beneficial. You're applying a rule of thumb that doesn't make much sense in his situation.
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The fiancée and I just got approved,for 3.3% FHA and 3.8% conventional. 🙂. We are going to look, but probably wait as the FHA fee sucks donkey balls. Mthe lender actually said its the lowest FHA loan she has ever seen. We both have great credit.
 
GT1999 said:
The fiancée and I just got approved,for 3.3% FHA and 3.8% conventional. 🙂. We are going to look, but probably wait as the FHA fee sucks donkey balls. Mthe lender actually said its the lowest FHA loan she has ever seen. We both have great credit.
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3.3 is pretty good for FHA, but the 1.75% fee upfront, plus the monthly mortgage insurance means you should only do it if you have to.

If you have good credit, you can get Lender Paid mortgage insurance, which means your rate is a little higher, but no 1.75% fee and no monthly mortgage insurance.

FHA should really only be used for those with under 640 credit, or who are trying to purchase a home with only 3.5% down.
 
What is the rough estimate of closing costs? 1% of the value of the home or 1% of the value of the loan? I'm at 4.375% right now and bought not quite 2 years ago and don't plan on selling. I've opened up a bunch of credit cards lately just for the cash back deals so I'm not sure where my credit score is at the moment.
 
Triumph said:
What is the rough estimate of closing costs? 1% of the value of the home or 1% of the value of the loan? I'm at 4.375% right now and bought not quite 2 years ago and don't plan on selling. I've opened up a bunch of credit cards lately just for the cash back deals so I'm not sure where my credit score is at the moment.
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Its tough because the people who are truly qualified to answer your questions are prohibited by Dodd Franks. What you're asking about is one of the trigger terms.
 
I got a rental that is at 5.75 15yr rate currently. Got about 5 years/55k left on it. Primary residence has about 75k equity on it. My question is, should I do anything with regards to the rental property, right now the monthly interest on it is around $260, and principal is around $680, for a total of around $940. We'd like to lower that substantially. Would any banks refi a 50k mortgage? If not, what about a home equity loan on the primary house. Would that make sense? If so it would make the total owed against the primary home well into the 90% LTV.

I just did some quick calculations, I believe we have about $9500 left that we would pay as interest if we keep the current loan. If we refi'd and could get a 4% 15 year loan, that'd drop the payment to 400. If we kept on paying 940 total, we'd pay around $6500 toward interest. Of course, I doubt we'd want to add that extra 500. Hell I don't know what to do.
 
OCGuy said:
3.3 is pretty good for FHA, but the 1.75% fee upfront, plus the monthly mortgage insurance means you should only do it if you have to.

If you have good credit, you can get Lender Paid mortgage insurance, which means your rate is a little higher, but no 1.75% fee and no monthly mortgage insurance.

FHA should really only be used for those with under 640 credit, or who are trying to purchase a home with only 3.5% down.
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I've been told 660 is the cut-off point for FHA unless you put 20% down. At 5% down with a 655 credit score, I can't get a good conventional loan; therefore, I'm going FHA. I just locked at a rate of 2.875% on a 15-year mortgage.

My thought about the lender paid mortgage insurance is that the rate is higher for the life of the loan. With mortgage insurance that I pay, I should be able to cancel it once the house is at 78% LTV.
 
kalrith said:
I've been told 660 is the cut-off point for FHA unless you put 20% down. At 5% down with a 655 credit score, I can't get a good conventional loan; therefore, I'm going FHA. I just locked at a rate of 2.875% on a 15-year mortgage.

My thought about the lender paid mortgage insurance is that the rate is higher for the life of the loan. With mortgage insurance that I pay, I should be able to cancel it once the house is at 78% LTV.
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80% if you request in writing once you reach that point.
 
oznerol said:
Initially tried to refinance with current lender (Wells Fargo), but their rates and fees were quite high. The rep claimed the "no cost refinance" ad pitches from other companies were a gimmick, and they would hit you in other places (higher overall rates, hidden fees, whatever).
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No shit, I called Wells Fargo and asked if they could do something with my 4.85% and they told me that was a very good rate I already had. WTF? 🙄

On the impound, when I refi'd a few years back from DiTech to Wells Fargo, they made me fund it as part of the closing fees. DiTech wrote me a check for my remaining balance afterwards.
 
kalrith said:
I've been told 660 is the cut-off point for FHA unless you put 20% down. At 5% down with a 655 credit score, I can't get a good conventional loan; therefore, I'm going FHA. I just locked at a rate of 2.875% on a 15-year mortgage.

My thought about the lender paid mortgage insurance is that the rate is higher for the life of the loan. With mortgage insurance that I pay, I should be able to cancel it once the house is at 78% LTV.
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You can be told whatever you want, I am knee-deep in the industry. Ignore me, or dont, I dont care. FHA has no cutoff, other than what the actual investors dictate.
 
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