Refinance Vent

The short answer is that you won't get a re-fi if you're underwater because there isn't enough equity in the house to guarantee the loan. How do I know? We've been trying since January 2009. Our mortgage was sold out from under us while we were trying to negotiate a lower rate with our lender and we have been in limbo ever since. My house is worth $100K more than we owe, our interest rate is "temporarily reduced" to 6% and none of our payments get applied to principal. It's a total nightmare.

Really, no bank in their right mind would give you a loan on a property where you owe more than it's worth, so save yourself the aggravation and don't pursue this. You won't qualify for a loan as long as the amount owed exceeds the value of your house.

Well I will share my sob story. Unlike you I am not underwater, I actually own more than half my home which is a huge chunk of equity. During my divorce my ex trashed our credit for fun. So even though I have tons of equity, good income, never been late on a payment I can't refinance for more than a half percent lower than I have now.

My own bank actually said we don't care if you default, we will get our money back because of your equity. Thanks for that assholes!!

So along come Troy and we were planning on getting married. We can refinance in his name. Nope he has to be on the title, logical, add him to the title. He has to be on the title for six months, okay. No he has to be on the title for a year, we just hit that point. The fact that we are married doesn't matter because apparently people have had fake marriages to refinance and then walked away from the marriage and the mortgage!!

What is killing me now is my credit has recovered enough that together we could get 4.5% but now it is personal!!! That damn mortgage will be in Troy's name!!!

Freaking hoops!!

My point is everything has made it worse for normal folk like us. The deatbeats are still getting loans, the rich don't need them but god forbid I try to save 3%.

Thanks! that felt good.

Oh those loan companies, their biggest game is lying about the terms until closing, sure you have the right to decline the loan but at that point you are usually so frustrated you sign. I was screwed by Homested after my divorce, which sold to Countrywide, guess who holds my mortgage now? :(

I started calling a few banks a few weeks back to refinance. I'm amazed at how few of them are truly interested in dealing with us, and we have excellent credit! Excellent!

I've stopped looking for a bank because I just can't deal with it. I know we need to refi, but since no one will call us back, it's just too much of a pain!

We refinanced thru quicken last summer, it was very easy, I guess we had our ducks in a row so to speak.

We are not upside down but we basically have no equity at this point. We had a mortgage with almost an 8% interest rate! It was killing us! The bank also did not hold our escrow which made it tougher. We didnt have bad credit back then either we just had no idea and everyone told us this type of mortgage was better.

I called quicken and with our 'excellent credit' we refinance to 4.5% the process was pretty painless. And our mortgage payments dropped from over 2200K a month to just shy of 1K, but now they are holding our escrow which still brings us up to 1500 lol. Because of the pricing drop our house dropped value and we had to refinance something like 96% of the value which means you have to get that special insurance, so we have to pay an additional $180 a month towards it. I cant think of the name. But in the end its still worth it! Then a month later they sold our mortgage to Bank of America. Hate those guys. lol. BTW we do send more per month since we were paying over 2K, it only makes sense.

In December they called us to let us know that we qualify for a lower rate. They have this program that lets us refinance for FREE for the life of the loan if the rates dropped and we were part of that. I thought 4.5% was pretty freaking good, but we said OK, they gave us 4% our payment drops $100, ok not bad. At closing they wanted the equivalent to the mortgage payment and money to 'start' our escrow account again. So it was a little sticky but we got it and Bank of America refunded the escrow account in two weeks so it was ok.

We had a good experience with quicken but they did make me crazy with this form and that form and faxing statements and this and that! It was like never ending faxathon!

Just remember a lot of reviews are posted by those with negative experiences. Unfortunately most people remember the bad and not the good. My first official 'review' of a restaurant was negative because it was so bad I wanted to tell the world! I also make a point to post good reviews, with the internet thats what most people search for, the bad things.

Its also tougher to get loans these days - a few years ago I worked for a mortgage company and when inspectors came to 'inspect' they didnt even walk in the house, they just looked at the house and say ok its worth XX and leave! Today they spend over an hour at the house and check everything! Things have changed so much they want to know everything!

We are just numbers to the bank not people. Dont take it personally. My brother walked away from his condo and his credit is totally wiped out, he had a hard time getting an apartment so for a while he lived with friends. Or on the ship (hes in the navy) he said its horrible.

hang in there!

Can you find a mortgage broker?
That's probably better than dealing directly with a bank. And they get to shop the rates for you.
Points=Bad.
No points=Good.
Adjustable rate=Bad.
Fixed rate=Good.

It's not about your credit - it's about the current market value of your house. As the market for housing improves, your appraisal will raise - which allows the bank to lend you money based on the market value.

Think of it like a stock. You bought the stock for $100 five years ago. Today, the stock is selling for $75. But you're asking the bank to lend you $100 to refi your purchase from 5 years ago, while the bank is pointing out the stock is only worth $75.

It sucks, I know. But hang in there, that value will rise again. :)

Hi There,

We are like you and every other american, we owe more than our house is worth, we have recently been approved for a refinance at a lower rate etc. under the HARP program. If your loan is a Freddie Mac loan you may be eligible to refinance.

Hope this helps.

L.