Choosing to refinance your home may be confusing to you. There are times when you should consider it, and other times when you should not. For instance, if you just got the loan you should wait at least 6 months, which will be required by some lenders anyways. There is no point in refinancing so early because your equity has not increased, and your credit score will be the same. Both of which can get you a lower rate, even lower than refinancing alone.
How you can accomplish this is simple. It will be like the process that you used to get your original loan. You can use an online comparison site, which can do all the leg work for you. From there you will need to do a few things.
- Compare various options. Never take the first offer that you get. Read through all the offers that you have on the table and find the one that is the best fit for you.
- Always read the fine print. Do not assume that the lowest rate is always the best one. You need to compare all the details of the contract, including the interest rate that they are offering.
- Decide if you want to decrease your monthly payment, or if you want to pay the loan off faster. This will help you decide on the length of the new contract.
Those are the main things that you need to look at when you move forward with a refinance option. Now it is time to move on. Let us go over a few points when you should go for a refinanced mortgage loan.
Lower rates
If you are at the point of your payments that you are ready to lower your interest rates, you need to look into refinancing. When you first got the loan you probably did not have many options when it came to interest rates.
Now you have built up some equity, and your credit score should have risen a little. Both of these will increase your ability to get a new loan that has a much smaller interest rate attached to it.
Mortgage
You will want to get out from underneath the payment as quickly as possible. Refinancing can give you this option when you file the paperwork. You can opt for a higher payment that shortens the length of the contract.
This will build your equity by leaps and bounds, compared to the long, drawn-out contract that you had at first. If you find an extremely low-interest rate on a refinances option, you should jump at it. You may end up paying the same amount of money, but for a shorter time because more of your payment will be going towards the principal, instead of the interest charges.
We need to stop here for a second and make sure that you know iselect is an uncomplicated process that involves the steps listed above. If you need a refresher, go back and read the first part of this article again.
Type
If you paid attention to your payments, you may have realized that the interest rates were going up and down. This is due to the fluctuations in the market, which is what a variable interest rate is all about. You are much better off getting set up on a fixed-rate loan. It may cost you a little more at first, but in the end, you will be paying less because the market will continue to rise, which in turn would make your interest rates go through the roof.
Equity
Building equity in your home is one of the main goals that you need to focus on. This has been brought up numerous times already, which should show you how important it is. Just to make sure you understand what equity is, it is the value of your home (the current market value) minus the amount that you still owe on it.
The lower that you can get the interest, and the faster that you can get it paid off, the higher your equity goes. Your equity can increase your personal level of wealth, which matters to a lot of people. If it does not, let it be known that it will increase your ability to get a refinance loan that will end up saving you money.
Mortgage Insurance
This is an aspect of your original loan that you may not even be aware of. As a general rule, if what you owe is more than 80% of what the home is currently worth, you would have had to add on this type of policy. This policy can cost you a couple of grand every year. Once you have passed the eighty percent mark you need to refinance to remove this extra payment amount. It will put that grand or two back into your pocket.
Cash Out Refinance Option
This is a viable option for you if you need to make some home repairs, or if you are the point in your life where you want to remodel or expand your home. This option is called an Equity Cash Out, which works like an extra loan, while still offering you better rates.
The way that it works is simple. You get a loan for the amount that you have left on the original loan, plus the amount of equity that you have built up. As an example let us look at a quick scenario.
Let us say you owe $150k on your loan, but your house is now worth $300k. You can get a loan for the full $300,000, allowing you to pay off the rest of the first loan, plus the rest to give you the cash you need to make the changes that you want.
These are the reasons why you want to refinance your home, and it has been explained how easy it is to get one. You will obviously need to check with the lender that you are planning to go through because they may have some of their own rules that you will need to follow. Other than that, if you need a refinance loan compare some offers online and go for it.
