NBR: If you've refinanced your house lately...

MrsKLB

Who did you refinance with?  Also, did you get an independent appraisal prior to doing the refinancing?  We want to find out if we qualify for refinancing, but need to know the current appraisal value of our house first.  So, I'm wondering if we pay to get the appraisal now, will we end up having to pay for another one once we pick the bank we want to go with?  If anyone has done this recently and has tips, I'm listening... Thanks!

myrall

Oh God, the rates are so low right now I'm losing my mind! 4.5%?! 

Unfortunately, with the market tanking, we're effectively underwater on our mortgage. Thank goodness we got something we could afford in the first place - there's no way we could refi now. Booooo!!!

[Deleted User]

We recently financed and used Faye Bell at Pine State Mortgage: faye.bell@pinestate.com.

Early on in the refinance process, Faye had an independent appraiser and a Realtor assess our property, provide comps and give their opinions of what they thought our house would appraise for.  Then later, we got the official appraisal. 

To answer your question--if you get an appraisal on your own, you will have to pay for it AND another one once you pick the bank you want to go with.  This is b/c you are no longer allowed to submit your own appraisal as the official appraisal.  It has to be done by an independent appraiser and the cost gets added to your closing costs.

Hope that helps!

LaruC27

We refinanced about 9 months ago.  DH found a good deal with American Equity and our loan is now through BOA.  We didn't get an appraisal until we were doing paperwork with American Equity. Our guy found an appraiser who was willing to go out of the neighborhood and find houses to compare ours to and got us an amount just over our refi amount so we could make it work.  Not sure if there is someone who is still willing to help people out like that now though. 

Amy_729

I don't have an answer to your question, but we actually just started the process to potentially refinance earlier this week. We have learned that its going to be much more complicated than we thought due to the value of our house dropping around $50K since we bought. We don't owe more than our house is worth, but if we refinance our mortgage is going to be more than 80% of the value of our house, which means mortgage insurance. There are a few ways around mortgage insurance, but they may end up being more trouble than its worth to refinance. We have CITI, and I haven't heard great things about dealing with them directly, which is what we would have to do. Ugh.

We absolutely love Renita Alder at First Cherokee State Bank. Her rates are very competitive and she is great to work with. She originated our mortgage on our house when we bought in 2006. Let me know if you want her contact info. 

K&P414

We refinanced through Wells Fargo because they already had our existing mortgage.  I felt like it was an easier process because we already had a mortgage relationship with them. 

SuwaneeGirl

Call your current lender first. If you're with a big bank in an FHA loan that has PMI, you may not be eligible to refi with anyone but your current lender. At least that's what I experienced back in December when I was attempting to refi.

I ended up doing a streamlined refi with my current lender. I got a 30-year loan at a reduced interest rate and I am saving at least $200/month. It was considered to be done under the Making Home Affordable legislation. From start to finish, the process took about 4 months.

leslienpete

We didn't refi, but we just sold our house and bought a new one. Our new mortgage is with Wells Fargo and the whole experience was super easy. I really expected it to be a hassle and having to obtain a whole bunch of paperwork. We were both super pleasantly surprised.

slwprincess

We did it a few months ago. First we tried to go through our Credit Union but got a bad appraisal- as in, the guy was totally incompetent and our Credit Union refunded our money b/c it was full of factual errors that he refused to correct. Then I just decided to go through Lending Tree.  The company we used is actually out of Kentucky but they were prompt and had the best rates.  This time, when the appraisers came, I was prepared.  I had done my own research and pulled recent sales from the Tax Commissioners Website, etc.  Basically did their job for them but it worked.  They were really nice guys too and totally in love with my husbands theater room in the man pit.  That helped :-)  So our appraisal came back 15K higher than I had expected.  And it was good timing too, b/c a month later we had another foreclosure pop up in our neighborhood.  My advice is if you skip the independent appraisal, just really do your own research and KNOW what your house is worth before you start the process so that you won't get any surprises.  Also, ask your neighbors if any of them have done it and what their experiences were.

Louise06

We refinanced in December thru BOA - we called around and went with the best rate we could find. Our rate was 4.25% and we went with a 15 year morgage. We just went with the bank apprasial since we knew that our home value had not changed since we bought our house due to our location and neighborhood.

That.Just.Happened

MrsKLB:

Who did you refinance with?  Also, did you get an independent appraisal prior to doing the refinancing?  We want to find out if we qualify for refinancing, but need to know the current appraisal value of our house first.  So, I'm wondering if we pay to get the appraisal now, will we end up having to pay for another one once we pick the bank we want to go with?  If anyone has done this recently and has tips, I'm listening... Thanks!

I have a fabulous lender (I am a realtor) that I have worked with for years if you need a rec. Do not spend the money to get an independent appraisal yourself, you will just have to pay to have another one done through the lender.  The lending laws have changed so much lately and they are *really* strict on  what appraisers they can use and how that process works.  Rates are so outrageously low right now, it would probably be a good choice if you can refi, but you need to talk to a good lender about it to see if it actually makes sense for your situation, it doesn't for everyone.

My lender is Owen Jennings and you can find his contact info at www.owenjennings.com.  Tell him Alix referred you!