hey financial guys

[the nikster]

Like most of you, I get offers daily to refinance my house-presently around 4.25/4.75% for a fixed rate mortgage.
I am still (don't hate me) sitting on my ARM. It is from the GOV as my wife is a vet and our rate is presently less than 3.5%. We were told it could only go up .5% per year and could not go up more than 3 years in a row.
I would like to free up some cash even if our mortgage goes up a bit to avoid REALLY high payments later and my gut tells me it is time---do I have a good feeling about this?
How much % can a fella reallistically expect? What are some things to look out for -closing, points etc? Is there an institution out there that is setting itself apart as an honest place to do business?
Any thoughts?

 

[chasendeer]

There is a lot of good offers out there now. 4.5% is still historically a great rate. That last refi I did was with Wells Fargo, it took along time to get it done but when all said and done there was no hidden cost with it. My father is doing his house now it took about 4 months on his with BofA.
Good luck
Jay

 

[SDHNTR]

As a vet, you'd be hard pressed to beat USAA.

 

[Buschy]

nikster,

I am a vet as well and in the process of refinancing my house. I am locked in at 3.5% for a 15-year loan and rolled all of the refi costs in to the loan itself. I would be surprised to see rates go lower, but I also said that 10 months ago when I bought this house and with a rate of 4.875%.

 

[the nikster]

Thanks.
Probably gonna have my wife contact USAA tomorrow and see if we can get the ball rolling while it's still downhill.

 

[yellowdog]

Nikster,
Just locked into a 30 year mortgage at 3.85 this week. Non vet. you should be able to do better as a vet..
YD

 

[Wolf Murder]

Hey Nikster,

I agree with SDHNTR in that it would be hard to beat the USAA, but either way the interest rates are very low right now. 15 year under 4% and 30 year around 4.3%. Usually, if you have enough equity you can roll up the closing costs, fees etc into the loan amount. You will want to make sure that your Loan to Value is at less than 90%. The lower the better. If you want to take money out the LTV must be less than 80% (Some lenders will allow under 90%, but it depends on the underwriters). Definitely look into the USAA first though. Best of luck!

Gut shoot 'em (Wolves)

 

[mtelkhntr78]

Hey fellas! My first reply to a thread on here.

I am a Vet and a USAA member. The first thing I will say is be very very aware of getting a mortgage or doing a refi with USAA!!!!!!! I am guessing that folks are making this recomendation based upon the good service and great products they have gotten from USAA.

DONT EXPECT THE SAME FROM USAA Mortgage!!!!

I do all my banking, insurance(home,car and umbrella), brokerage and lending thru USAA.
The service has been second to none when it comes to those products offered. However my experience on the refi of my house has been nothing like what I have seen from USAA. Just to put it in perspective I will give a quick list of my experience.

-processed started 02 Aug 2010, and we still havent closed.

-I have had 6 different closing dates, none of which have been honored(in fact I took one day of work off for the first anticipated closing and I didnt even get a call letting me know that it had been cancelled) I am still waiting to close-I keep getting the "next week" answer.

-Charging me for a rate extension when they were the ones that missed the closing date!!!!!!!!!!

-One my 4th loan officer(two quit or were fired)

-Poorest communication I have ever had with any proffesional organization.

-Found out that USAA actually doesnt handle the loan- its done thru a sub-contractor-US Bank. I was not made aware of this during the application process or at any time until i asked the question of them.


After I have been dealing with this nightmare I started doing some research via the web and started seeing tons of folks posting similar problems with USAA mortgage. Basically I walked blindly into this deal thinking I would get the same service I have on all the other services I have gone thru USAA on. Not the case... I didnt do my homework and now I am paying dearly for it. To the tune of about $350 is what a I am going to loose as a "good faith" fee. I am so fed up being out that money is a small price to pay to get away from this nightmare.

I know this is a complete 180 from what everyone else said about USAA, but it was that train of thought that got me into this mess in the first place.

Just giving my $.02 I hope it all works out for you.