thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

should I contact my mortgage lender first?

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

Yes, I would contact a mortgage company and the first thing they will do is have your home appraised.

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

Hello, My name is Thomas Lupski. I am an approved mortgage broker with LIFamilies.com and I am located in the Hauppauge area.

The first step in refinancing is to contact a broker/banker and give him/her your information. Let the broker know your goals, what you would like to accomplish and what your expectations of the broker are.

I would be more than happy to help you get started in this process and answer any questions that you may have. Rates are the lowest that I have seen in a long time and would love to pass these great rates along to you.

I seen that someone mentioned ordering an appraisal. That is not true anymore since the laws have changed. I do have a friend of mine that is a licensed appraisor and she will let me know a value free of charge and from there I can give you a few different loan options to choose from.

Please feel free to give me a call in the office (631)787-8534 or on my cell (631) 445-1781. this is a free consultation where I will answere any questions you have with no obligation to do business.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thomas Lupski
PSP Home Funding Solution

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

I would check with your existing lender first.

I believe if you re-fi with your current bank, you won't have to pay the mortgage tax which can add up.

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

I just did this--I called my current lender BOA and the best option for us was through the making home affordable program. I didn't need to use the program but I got the best rate--I was able to not have to escrow taxes and insurance because I didn't have to before--no pmi because I didn't pay it when I bought my house and there was no appraisal and minimal closing costs.

I called a few times--it seems that the lenders now know what is going on--and the 4th time was a charm because I lowered my rate by 1.5%, turned my 30 year mortgage to a 20 year mortgage and ended up paying the same amount every month.

Best decision we made!

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

I'm in mortgage banking, (work for BOA) call your current lender first. They should be able to offer you the best products and they'll want to keep your business so they will work with you. If you are with BOA, the making home affordable is great. most lenders should have something similar. You usually don't need an appraisal, and the process moves super quick and the costs are very minimal.

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

We wanted to do 2 things, refi for the lower rate AND possibly pull out equity and add a second floor.

We started with our original lender. The upside, less fees. Downside, fewer choices, set rates.

For us, though, since we wanted to take out equity our bank could only offer the products they have at their rates. We actually talked to PSP Home Funding (Tom replied on here already) and they actually had some really good ideas on how to structure the loans so we could get more money out and in the end be paying an overall lower rate, so I would actually recommend talking to them if you’re thinking about taking money out as opposed to just a rate and term… and make sure you have DH run an amortization schedule because our original lender bank said we could buy down the rate but the cost of doing so was not worth the savings in the long run, so make sure the fees you pay aren’t more than the savings in the long run. (that was less for you and more for everyone else reading this...
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Re: thinking of refinancing...what should be my first step?

Message edited 5/26/2010 11:50:48 AM.