Refinance - has anyone else had luck lately?

gathermewool

Site Donor 2023
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Our current loan is through Navy Federal Credit Union. The original process four years ago went very well, no complaints. NFCU can be fickle, though. We tried early this year to refinance our VA loan and were summarily rejected without a reason, early in the process; just a letter in the mail stating they couldn't offer us a loan. No one would pick up our calls or return our emails from then on...weird. A friend of ours had a similarly bad experience in that every time they called or received new estimates the numbers changed. He said they had to literally have them go through the number five times, and in the end, he just didn't feel comfortable moving forward.

Fast forward to today and they're willing to play ball and have been very attentive (likely because our house is worth substantially more than it was earlier this year). We did mention that we had quotes from other providers and were genuinely ready to jump on a much lower rate, which seemed to help. We sent them what Rocket Mortgage offered and they came very close, with lower closing costs. We just locked in a 2.411% APR (from 3.25% four years ago). We had an offer closer to 2.25% from Rocket Mortgage (rate, not including closing costs - I don't recall what the APR was). I tried to talk my wife into going with RM, but she refused if we could get even close with USAA or NFCU, which we did...so I conceded. We're still going to be saving around $200/month (keep in mind, we're resetting to 30 years from the 26 we still owed, so some of it isn't REAL savings. The real number, 26 mo. for 26 mo. is more like $180, IIRC (don't have the spread sheet at the moment))

The point: if you had issues refinancing earlier this year or last year now's the time to take advantage of rates before they go up. Who knows whether this housing bubble will be sustained, also.
 
Sometimes if you have a fairly good rate right now ..Just make a additional partial payement in mid month and you will be surprized how that helps in lowering the pricipal...Kind of like refinancing without the cost..
 
I quickly looked into but it appeared I would need to pay points, which I refuse to do. And even if I did, the benefits of refinancing wouldn't pan out. So I dropped the idea - though my mortgage is 3.75%, is still pretty low and I'm not complaining,
 
Just did a refi on my beach house @2.25%.⛱️ Saves me ~$300/mo. Got 2.75% on a second house at the same time. Didn't think the VA would OK the deal but they did. Bought three houses now w/VA. At my age two 30 year mortgages is nonsense for a lender but that's how voracious this market is.

Agree 100% with @gathermewool. There is no where for the rates to go but ⬆️.
 
I am a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator (better designation that a bank Mortgage Loan Officer). I'm guessing the OP had a crummy loan officer and that resulted in the poor experience, this happens all the time.

If anyone is in VA or NC look up capcenter.com - 0 closing costs and good rates. They are legit, everyone around here uses them (including me).
 
Sometimes if you have a fairly good rate right now ..Just make a additional partial payement in mid month and you will be surprized how that helps in lowering the pricipal...Kind of like refinancing without the cost..

I don't plan to pay this low-interest mortgage off a day sooner than it's due. Well, that is unless I somehow obtain more money than I know what to do with some time between now and 30 years from now. Otherwise, it'll go toward investments and fun stuff, while I can enjoy the better things (in moderation).

I quickly looked into but it appeared I would need to pay points, which I refuse to do. And even if I did, the benefits of refinancing wouldn't pan out. So I dropped the idea - though my mortgage is 3.75%, is still pretty low and I'm not complaining,

What's wrong with points? Download or make a mortgage calculator yourself and do the math. The refinance will either save you money in the near (or long) term or it won't. My ROI for this refinance is looking to be only < 5 years. We plan on living here for forever, so even an ROI of 15 years would have been considered, though much less likely compared to 5.

Just did a refi on my beach house @2.25%.⛱️ Saves me ~$300/mo. Got 2.75% on a second house at the same time. Didn't think the VA would OK the deal but they did. Bought three houses now w/VA. At my age two 30 year mortgages is nonsense for a lender but that's how voracious this market is.

Agree 100% with @gathermewool. There is no where for the rates to go but ⬆️.

Good for you and congrats on having the extra income to afford what you're able to. I didn't think the VA would go for my loan either since I was only a Reservist. Both Rocket Mortgage and now NFCU are moving forward with what's called a VA Streamlined process. I can't complain.
 
I am a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator (better designation that a bank Mortgage Loan Officer). I'm guessing the OP had a crummy loan officer and that resulted in the poor experience, this happens all the time.

If anyone is in VA or NC look up capcenter.com - 0 closing costs and good rates. They are legit, everyone around here uses them (including me).

I mentioned that it was early on in the process when we got rejected; however, we had a loan officer (I think that's what she was) who barely communicated. We chalked it up to demand, but still feel it was inexcusable.

Thanks for the post.
 
Just guessing here, the loan officer had a dozen apps on his/her desk and cherry picked the easiest ones. They found something on your app that looked like it may cause them additional work and moved on to an easier app. Happens every day.

If you want great service then have a loan around 400-600k. Those are the ones where you can make some good $$ as a lender.
 
what's called a VA Streamlined process.
That's what my mortgage guy called it. I read the VA rules and told him I thought it wouldn't work but it did. I was wrong. Proves the old axiom that 'you're never too old to learn somethin' new.'

My son is a reservist too and he did a refi about 6 months ago. VA is a great bennie.
 
In 1979 I moved from Indiana to eastern PA and the cheapest rate I could get was 13%! And I was lucky to get that. You young'uns have no idea what high interest rates are like. Banks were paying over 10% on CDs and utility stocks were well into the mid-teens as far as dividend yield went.
And all this was due to our fearless leader at the time, Mr. James Carter.
 
In 1979 I moved from Indiana to eastern PA and the cheapest rate I could get was 13%! And I was lucky to get that. You young'uns have no idea what high interest rates are like. Banks were paying over 10% on CDs and utility stocks were well into the mid-teens as far as dividend yield went.
And all this was due to our fearless leader at the time, Mr. James Carter.
I remember all that very well
 
In 1979 I moved from Indiana to eastern PA and the cheapest rate I could get was 13%! And I was lucky to get that. You young'uns have no idea what high interest rates are like. Banks were paying over 10% on CDs and utility stocks were well into the mid-teens as far as dividend yield went.
And all this was due to our fearless leader at the time, Mr. James Carter.
Oh yeah and people think the sky is falling and we're doomed when inflation is just around 6% and it was much higher in the 80s and we didn't implode back then.
 
Oh yeah and people think the sky is falling and we're doomed when inflation is just around 6% and it was much higher in the 80s and we didn't implode back then.

Was there over 100 million working age adults out of the workforce back then ?

.
 
I am a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator (better designation that a bank Mortgage Loan Officer). I'm guessing the OP had a crummy loan officer and that resulted in the poor experience, this happens all the time.

If anyone is in VA or NC look up capcenter.com - 0 closing costs and good rates. They are legit, everyone around here uses them (including me).
Are ya happy that the QM patch has been effectively shelved?
 
Oh yeah and people think the sky is falling and we're doomed when inflation is just around 6% and it was much higher in the 80s and we didn't implode back then.
but the gov. did not spend and spend like they do now...The deficit is much deeper now and getting worse...all we do not is just print more money...If we lived like the gov...we would be bankrupt and possibly be in jail...IMO
 
but the gov. did not spend and spend like they do now...The deficit is much deeper now and getting worse...all we do not is just print more money...If we lived like the gov...we would be bankrupt and possibly be in jail...IMO
Right. But we're not the government and they make the laws. If you look at countries that went bankrupt due to overspending, that tends to be in the 150-500% of GDP and we're not there yet. We're also the world's reserve currency which those other countries weren't so we have quite a few other things going for us. We also had the debt almost this high before due to WWII. You could consider a global pandemic a different kind of war. Needless to say, the sky isn't falling, it's still blue and birds fly through it.
 
Right. But we're not the government and they make the laws. If you look at countries that went bankrupt due to overspending, that tends to be in the 150-500% of GDP and we're not there yet. We're also the world's reserve currency which those other countries weren't so we have quite a few other things going for us. We also had the debt almost this high before due to WWII. You could consider a global pandemic a different kind of war. Needless to say, the sky isn't falling, it's still blue and birds fly through it.
as a retired meteorologist I would say the sky is blue but with increasing cloudiness....
 
as a retired meteorologist I would say the sky is blue but with increasing cloudiness....
But you still agree that birds fly through it?

You're basically doing the same thing when you were a meteorologist. You talked about the weather but did nothing about it. Same thing here...
 
But you still agree that birds fly through it?

You're basically doing the same thing when you were a meteorologist. You talked about the weather but did nothing about it. Same thing here...
Talked a forecasted it too.... issued warning and help saved lives... a little more than just talked about it...
 
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