Finally refinancing

[disneysteve]

I know I've posted at least a couple of threads asking questions about refinancing our mortgage. I kept dragging my feet on actually doing it because I just see the whole process as a hassle but I know it would save us thousands of dollars over the life of the loan so I finally took the plunge today.

So far, the process has been painless. They actually agreed to waive an appraisal since the amount we are borrowing is only about 35% of the property's value so we have plenty of equity. That was nice for two reasons - it speeds up the process since we don't have to wait for the appraisal to be done and it knocks $300 off the costs since we don't have to pay for the appraisal. I e-signed all of the application documents and tomorrow morning, I'll fax over the ones that needed actual signatures along with pay stubs, bank statement and homeowner's insurance info. The rep said that without appraisals, they've been closing within 2-3 weeks. It would be very nice if that is true.

We are going from a 25-year loan with 17 years, 7 months remaining at 5.875% to a 15-year loan at 3.99%. Our new payment will actually be a little less than we are currently paying. I don't know the exact amount yet but it should be at least $20/month less and probably even a little lower than that since I'll be making the November payment on the current loan which will reduce the amount of the new loan by a few hundred dollars.

I'll report back as the process moves along.

[snafu]

If you continued making the same payment, or paid that sum biweekly rather than monthly, how many months would that knock off your mortgage? We were able to pay off a 25 yr mortg. in 13 years when rates dropped just as our initial agreement expired. The overall savings were mind blowing due to the way amortization tables work.

[marvholly]

First saw this on your blog. You do not blog very often, right? Don't recall ever seeing any.

Declutter might be another topic to touch upon w/reference to the thread here.

[disneysteve]

If you continued making the same payment, or paid that sum biweekly rather than monthly, how many months would that knock off your mortgage?

The new payment is only going to be about $20 less but that is really irrelevant as we pay a bare minimum of $200 extra each month and some months we pay as much as $1,000 extra and I've been thinking about increasing that.

[disneysteve]

First saw this on your blog. You do not blog very often, right? Don't recall ever seeing any.

Declutter might be another topic to touch upon w/reference to the thread here.

I post here a lot more than I blog. I find the interaction and discussions more enjoyable than just sharing stuff for others to read, though I do some of that, too.

[minnie1928]

Steve, we too are refinancing right now. I am closing at the end of October and my first payment isn't due until 12/1. So, in effect I could skip my November mortgage payment. But, instead I've decided to pay my first mortgage payment on 11/1 and start the payment process early. By doing this one month payment at the beginning of my loan term I'll actually shorten the length of my loan by several months by saving thousands in interest.

I'm using Wells Fargo again, they called to offer me a lower rate at no cost (no appraisal either) just to keep my mortgage with them. So while we have 28.5 years remaining on our original 30 yr loan, I can keep paying the same amount and have the mortgage paid off in less than 25 years at the new rate.