You bought your house. You’ve put in the work and remodeled, redecorated, settled in
and made it a home. Now what? Well, If you’ve
been paying your mortgage for a few years or even more than just a few, you might want to
consider refinancing.
There are several reasons to consider a refinance — perhaps interest rates
have dropped since your initial loan or you want to
shorten your loan’s term. If you happen to have an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), you may want to
switch to a fixed-rate in order to lock in today’s historically low-interest
rates.
There may also be reasons to do a “cash-out” refinance, which allows you to tap into your
home’s equity. If you need some extra money to facilitate a home remodel
and you figure it will add to the value of the home, this might be the right option. Keep in mind, you’ll be increasing the length of time
it will take to pay off your home and ultimately paying more in interest
and fees.
Refinancing isn’t always the best choice, it really depends on the individual needs and circumstances of any given borrower. It can be
complicated process that has fees associated with it. Before
you decide to ge into it, you may want to consider a few things. If your credit isn't great, you may want to
work on improving your credit before you refi. A better credit score
means a better mortgage rate. Next, you need to ask yourself where you’ll be in
five years. If you do not plan on sticking around for a while, refinancing may not make sense. But if you’re thinking about being around long term, you can probably recover the fees associated with a refinance just through
interest savings.
Rockland Financial will be happy to walk you through this and help you determine what is the best course of action.
If you’ve
calculated the numbers and
decided it makes sense to refinance, then you’re ready to start shopping for
mortgages. Remember, when you refinance you’re applying for a
new loan,
which means you need to be prepared to provide all the necessary information to get a loan approval: verify your income, your assets, your debt-to-income ratios, your
credit profile, and your job history. A home appraisal will be needed to make sure it’s still worth enough to support the loan.
Mortgage refinancing these days can be a bit complicated, but with the right support and guidance it can be relatively painless. We are here to help,
contact us at anytime...
*source Yahoo Finance
