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Find Refinancing
Offers at Quicken Loans
 Most
homeowners are fairly adept at methods of saving money--they clip coupons to save a few dollars when grocery shopping,
and they comparison shop before most major purchases. Many of these same homeowners, however, continue to pay monthly
mortgage payments with interest rates that are 2%, 3%, or more higher than what may be currently available. The
cost can be enormous. For example, the difference in payments between a $100,000 mortgage at 9.75% and at 7.25%
amounts to $176.97 per month, or $2123.64 per year. You need to clip a whole lot of coupons to save that kind of
money!
Should We Refinance?
Before you embark on a program to refinance your house,
there are a few questions you will need to answer. By analyzing your current situation you will be able to make
a more informed decision as to which is more beneficial: refinancing or maintaining your current mortgage.
Questions to ask:
1) What is your current interest rate?
2) What is the current market interest rate?
3) Is the rate fixed or variable?
4) How long do you plan to stay in this home?
5) Do you have cash available for the closing costs?
6) Is the value of your home increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same? What are the short term and long
term prospects for the value of your house?
Analyzing your answers:
1) and 2) If the difference between your current mortgage
rate and what is available is approximately 2 percentage points, it may be to your advantage to refinance. If the
difference is 1 1/2 points or less, it may not make sense to refinance.
3) If you have a variable rate, the rate is continuing to climb every year, and the current market interest rate
is lower, it may be advantageous to refinance your house.
4) If you plan on staying in your current house for more than three years, it may make sense to refinance. If you
feel confident that you will be moving in less than three years, it will probably be better to stay with your current
loan (unless there is a large variance between your current interest rate and what is available).
5) In most cases, you will need at least some cash for closing. FHA and VA loans will allow you to "roll-in"
certain closing costs into the new loan, but some cash will still need to be available.
6) If the value of your home is staying the same or increasing you may be able to increase your equity more quickly
with a lower interest rate. If the value of your home is decreasing, it may not be a good idea to throw "good
money after bad" for closing costs when your equity position may well be eroding.
One of the best sources we have found for refinancing is
Quicken
Loans.. Submit an easy loan request form, and within 2 business days you'll
begin receiving real loan offers from up to 4 lenders--not "leads" or phony come-ons. The process is
simplified and you get comparisons from different lenders. Plus, there are no broker's fees! It really can't get
much simpler.
Click
here to compare refinance offers.
To do a quick computation of your own payments, use our refinancing
calculator.
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