Home equity loan refinancing
Home Equity Loan Refinancing
It's important to know your rights and options before signing off on a home
equity loan refinancing deal. Exercise care to ascertain if the lock-in is free
of charge or if it is contingent of particular rates and point levels. Carefully
examine the home equity loan refinancing docs to see if a fee is being charged.
- Know your right of rescission - At times closing documents may not be to
your satisfaction. You have the right to back out of a deal so long as it
adhere to the right of rescission clauses in your jurisdiction. Normally you
have three business days from the date of closing to opt out of a loan deal.
If you decide to reject the deal, the lender must be notified in writing within
the three-day period. Your fees are then returned to you in 20 days.
- Little equity in your home does not of itself disqualify you from refinancing
- As a protection lenders normally require that you have at least 10 percent
equity in your home. This is often referred to in lending terms as 90% LTV,
a loan-to-value percentage. Still some lenders allow a 95% LTV or 5 percent
equity in the home. With such loans PMI issues may give rise to higher mortgage
insurance costs.
Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owned loans make this allowance. To find out if
your loan is owned by these organizations, contact the company that receives
your mortgage payments and ask them to retrieve the appropriate data.
- Interest rate comparison shopping - It's important to know that an 8 percent
rate tied to 0 points is a less expensive than an 8 percent rate tied to 2
points.
- When comparing different rates and points offered by competing lenders,
use the following formula. Each point would be the difference of 1/4 of 1
percent of the interest rate. In other words if you have an interest rate
of 8 percent with 0 points this would be the equivalent of a 7.75 percent
loan with 1 point.
- Beware of no cost loans - For some situations no cost loans can be the difference
between getting a loan or failing to qualify for lack of ability to pay up
front loan costs. Certain programs allow for this situation with what is called
"no cost loans". One should be careful however in the understanding of how
these program actually work. No cost loan fees can be quite exorbitant at
closing.
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