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Hey all -- my wife and I are looking to take advantage of the lower rates and refi. Any wisdom or thoughts on picking a mortgage lender (besides rate, being able to pre-pay, and being able to re-cast)?
Please share with me your wisdom, and any other considerations.
If you are a member of a CU that offers residential lending, I would look there first.
If not, find out if you are dealing with a broker or an actual lender. If you deal with a broker, you have to pay them something for their time/efforts.
Many mortgage lenders will sell your loan once the loan closes, which you should receive a notice of who acquired your loan.
Also, if you have been in the house for less than 10 years, you can see if you can get the "reissue rate" for title insurance. The shorter amount of time involved in researching the title, the less the cost. Google reissue rate for title insurance. I mentioned this since you mentioned mortgage recasting.
Check with your state regulator who oversees state mortgage brokers/mortgage lenders. You can also find out if there any any complaints against a particular lender. The regulator will not give details about the complaint/complainant, but if someone tells you there are 20 complaints for 2020, you may rethink your selection. Of course, you don't know what the lender's loan volume for the time period in question.
You can ask your state regulator if your state has instituted a loan prepayment penalty; many states do not, but you need to check as a precaution.
Prepaying a loan is between you and the lender/servicer. You may want to ask about that when discussing it with the mortgage lender you ultimately deal with prior to the closing.
You can also check this link which is for public only to see if the company is licensed and other information.
Points, obviously, though I assume that you incorporated that (somewhat) in your mention of rates. One should consider points carefully, because the more you prepay the greater the impact of those points on your effective rate. Related are closing fees.
Do they require you to include taxes (or anything else) with your monthly payments? Do you care if the mortgage is assumable (probably not if your focus is on prepaying)?
One thing that surprised me when investigating a refi at my FCU, refinance rates are significantly higher than new mortgage rates. What you will normally see advertised on any bank or mrtgage brokerage website is new mortgage rates. For me, I had to make calls to figure out refi rates. Closing costs weren't much different new to refi.
Many of the CUs in my state have a joint owned CUSO, credit union service organization, or a subsidiary to handle the initial mortgage work. This way, each credit union shares in the overall cost, rather than one credit union bearing the total cost.
Here are pages from PenFed and Navy FCU regarding refinancing:
Pended is a great CU. Anybody can join and they do it fairly. We refinanced several times over the years and found each time hundreds of dollars "mistakes" that had to be fixed because I was going to walk away hours before closing. Penfed didn't have these mistakes. Penfed was our last home debtor. In 2012, they offer a 5 years loan at 1.99% with zero fees. We use it to pay the previous mortgage + our kids tuition and how we finished paying our debt years earlier.
Comments
If not, find out if you are dealing with a broker or an actual lender. If you deal with a broker, you have to pay them something for their time/efforts.
Many mortgage lenders will sell your loan once the loan closes, which you should receive a notice of who acquired your loan.
Also, if you have been in the house for less than 10 years, you can see if you can get the "reissue rate" for title insurance. The shorter amount of time involved in researching the title, the less the cost. Google reissue rate for title insurance. I mentioned this since you mentioned mortgage recasting.
Check with your state regulator who oversees state mortgage brokers/mortgage lenders. You can also find out if there any any complaints against a particular lender. The regulator will not give details about the complaint/complainant, but if someone tells you there are 20 complaints for 2020, you may rethink your selection. Of course, you don't know what the lender's loan volume for the time period in question.
You can ask your state regulator if your state has instituted a loan prepayment penalty; many states do not, but you need to check as a precaution.
Prepaying a loan is between you and the lender/servicer. You may want to ask about that when discussing it with the mortgage lender you ultimately deal with prior to the closing.
You can also check this link which is for public only to see if the company is licensed and other information.
https://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/
Do they require you to include taxes (or anything else) with your monthly payments? Do you care if the mortgage is assumable (probably not if your focus is on prepaying)?
Here are pages from PenFed and Navy FCU regarding refinancing:
https://www.penfed.org/mortgage-center/mortgage-refinancing
https://www.navyfederal.org/loans-cards/mortgage/refinancing/
From Bankrate:
https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/refinance-rates/?pointsChanged=false&searchChanged=true&mortgageType=Refinance&zipCode=08060&partnerId=br3&ttcid&userCreditScore=740&userVeteranStatus=NoMilitaryService&userHadPriorVaLoan=false&userHasVaDisabilities=false&userFirstTimeHomebuyer=false&userQuickClosing=false&userFha=false&userLowUpfrontCosts=false&userLowPayment=false&purchasePrice=360000&purchaseDownPayment=72000&purchasePropertyType=SingleFamily&purchasePropertyUse=PrimaryResidence&purchaseLoanTerms=30yr&purchasePoints=All&refinancePropertyValue=360000&refinanceLoanAmount=288000&refinancePropertyType=SingleFamily&refinancePropertyUse=PrimaryResidence&refinanceCashOutAmount=0&refinancePoints=All&refinanceLoanTerms=30yr
Penfed didn't have these mistakes.
Penfed was our last home debtor. In 2012, they offer a 5 years loan at 1.99% with zero fees. We use it to pay the previous mortgage + our kids tuition and how we finished paying our debt years earlier.