Tips for refinancing your mortgage

If you are considering refinancing your home, use these Refinancing Tips:

1) Determine your main goal	Do you want to refinance because you would like to save money each month? Would you like to get some cash out? Are you in a ARM that is adjusting and you would like to get into a fixed mortgage? Once you know the reason for refinancing, you should ask your mortgage specialist whether or not it would be beneficial for you to refinance at this time or whether it may be more beneficial to wait.
2) Find out if you qualify for a government subsidized loan	Almost 30 million Americans qualify for a VA Loan. With a VA Loan, you can qualify for a VA Streamline Refinance. You may also be able to refinance your home with an FHA Streamline refinance.
3) Take into consideration how long you will live in your current home	If you plan on moving out of your existing home within the next few years, it may not be beneficial for you to refinance. Make sure you let your mortgage specialist know your future plans.
4) Can you consolidate your Debt with a Loan Refinance?	Refinacing your mortgage can allow you to take cash out of the equity which you have built in your home. You can pay off your higher interest debts and pay all of your debts at a lower interest rate. This will allow you to save money on a monthly basis and achieve your financial security.

You can save a lot of money by refinancing. Find out how much money you can save by speaking with a Mortgage Specialist. Call 800-930-9201.

For what reasons would it make sense for me to refinance my mortgage?

1) If you are able to get a lower interest rate	If you are able to get a lower rate that what you currently have, you can save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. Also, most lenders don't charge as many fees to refinance a mortgage and depending on how much equity you have in your home you may be able to roll the closing costs into your new loan, still have a lower balance than your original loan, a lower rate, and a lower payment.
2) Change the term of you mortgage	Changing the term of your mortgage can help in several ways. First, if you were to refinance your current mortgage from 30 years to 15 years, you will accelerate the rate at which you pay towards principle each month meaning your house will be paid off quicker. Also, you will save an unbelievable amount of money in terms of interest because you would likely be taking 10 to 15 years off the life of your loan. Second, you can also refinance a 15 year mortgage to a 30 year mortgage. It seems like it might not make sense to do this, but if you have an immediate need to free up monthly cash-flow and you don't want to take out a home equity loan, this can work out to your benefit. When you take a 15 year loan and refinance it to 30 years you will have the same balance only the payments can be hundreds of dollars less than the 15 year loan. The only draw back to this is you will pay more in interest over the live of the loan.
3) You need a large amount of cash, now	When you do a cash-out refinance you are leveraging the equity in your home in order to receive a lump sum of cash at closing. Many individuals and families use this type of loan if they want to remodel their home, or they have kids that are attending college soon.
4) You know you will be moving soon	If you know that you will be moving in 3 to 5 years, you might want to consider refinancing to a 3 or 5 year ARM (adjustable rate mortgage). These loans typically have a much lower rate that a traditional fixed rate loan such as a 30 year fixed, but they do have a fixed rate for the first 3 or 5 years of the loan. This will enable you to benefit from the lower rate, but you won't ever have to worry about the risk of a rate adjustment because you will be selling the home before the fixed-rate period ends.

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What you should look for in a mortgage company

1) Is the company reputable

There are literally thousands of mortgage companies all over the country. It is important that you choose a reputable one. Most reputable companies will be part of the Better Business Bureau or other community watchdog group. Good companies will also have websites that rank well on search engines such as Yahoo and Google.

2) Integrity of their loan officers

Many companies in this industry will do what ever they can to get away with charging you as much as they possibly can. Some of the ways they do this is not disclosing all the third party fees involved in a loan such as title insurance, appraisals, pre-paid tax and insurance escrows etc. It is important that you ask the loan officer you're speaking with about third party fees. If you don't they may not tell you and give you a good faith estimate that sounds fair, but at closing you'll find out that you have to pay a couple of thousand dollars more in fees you were unaware of. A good loan officer at a reputable company should have no problem disclosing all fees that pertain to your loan and should also make sure you understand what the fees are for.

Divorce and Refinancing

If you are divorced, refinancing your home can make things easier in regards to what happens to mortgage payments when the home is given to one of the parties. If you refinance the house, you can have your ex-spouse's name removed from the deed. Whoever gets the home will now be the sole owner and will be solely responsible for the payment. If you don't have one of the names taken off the deed, the person who is responsible for making the payments might fall behind and will effect the credit of the person's whose name is still on the deed even if they don't have the house.

Refinancing Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs)

An adjustable rate mortgage is just that. After the fixed-rate period of your loan, typically 3 or 5 years, the rate will adjust with the market. If rates remain low, no problems arise. On the other hand, rates can go up. Sometimes this can cause a mortgage payment to almost double. Many people that have an ARM are not financially ready for a large increase in their house payment. You can do several things to hedge the risk of a rate increase. First, you can refinance your loan into a fixed-rate loan before the end of the fixed period of your ARM. You will likely see a payment increase, but it will be a one time increase. If you keep the ARM, your payment might keep increasing year after year. Anther thing you can do is refinance into another ARM and have a fixed-rate for another 3 to 5 years. Just realize that you will likely have to refinance every 3 to 5 years. The same principles apply to home equity lines of credit (HELOCs)

Your home is not just a home - it is a financial tool

You can do many things with your home other than just live in it. You can use the value in your home for fiscal gain. First off, you can use the equity in your home to pay off debt at a much lower rate. For instance, say you're paying $1,500 a month on $30,000 of debt. If you have the equity, you can do a cash-out refinance and pay off the debt and your mortgage payment might only go up $300. This gives you an additional $1,200 in monthly cash flow. For this to be really effective you need to realize that you can't get into that much debt again because you might not have the equity to bail you out again. Another thing you can do is take all the equity out of your home and invest it. You may be able to make more money on the investment than you pay out in interest over the life of the new loan. It is important to know that if you choose to take cash out of your home and invest it, you should seek the advice of a certified financial planner. Not many people take advantage of this because it can be risky, but it is an option.

If you are considering refinancing, also remember that there are a variety of different mortgages. If you plan on living in your home for a long period of time, you may want to consider the traditional fixed-rate 15- or 30-year loan. Another option is to choose an adjustable rate mortgage and consider refinancing again in a few years. By refinancing, you can choose the perfect mortgage for your needs, which may have changed since you first bought your home. A mortgage broker can be a useful tool to help find the most appropriate mortgage for your refinancing.

Web Sites
Adding a list of useful web sites and be a quick and easy way of generating a content rich page that will be useful to visitors, but that should also rank well in the search engines if the sites are appropriate and the descriptions you enter for the sites make use of your chosen keywords and phrases.

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