Wife will hate me talking about this, but we were denied on our attempt to refinance. It really makes no sense other than because we were trying to keep the same company, they gain more money from us by keeping us on a 30 year note than allowing us to move to a 15 year note. That would be a little conspiracy theorist of me, but otherwise, I don't know why else they would not want to.
Stepping back, we have our home loan through Loan Depot, we have now been in this house since 2007 and although it is not perfect, in general, we love this house. It is big, we never feel like we are in each other's space, sometimes I think I would like a newer home, due to rising costs, I don't think we could do better in this area. If we hadn't refinanced in 2015-16, we might not even be interested in doing this, when we bought the house in 2007, we had a mortgage signed for 30 years which would coincide with me turning 65 about the time we finished paying. But, after refinancing, the clock started over and now I would be around 75. I hope I may still be around then, but I definitely don't want to still have to be dragging my ass into the night shift then.
Because of this, I decided we needed to pay off the house sooner than anticipated. Since we have no discipline to just get our shit together and pay more each month, I thought it would be better to sign a 15 year note. At 48, we could be done by the time I turn 63 which is a couple years shorter then the original note would've been. Curiously, we refinanced because our mortgage had creeped up from when we moved in initially paying around $2400, to almost $3300. The refinance brought it back in line to a reasonable payment of $2600. Over the last 4 years, we have been able to keep it there, by paying the increases the escrow suggests.
Technically, we weren't denied, they just suggested we pay the solar panels with the mortgage instead of paying some credit debt we have that I want to get rid of. We owe roughly $30K to either the solar panels which we are on a payment plan of 10 more years at $311, and we owe roughly $30k to about 3 credit cards to which we pay $1100. Which $30K does it make more sense to pay off if we have about $30K in equity we could/should be able to borrow? I thought it was our money to do with as we saw fit. This was decided and told to us after dragging us along since October, when we started the process and the first thing I told them was that I wanted to get rid of this credit card debt. Like I said, they get more from us by keeping us on a 30 year note than actually helping us and moving us to a lower interest rate and shorter time.
Not to worry, another mortgage company came a calling, many did, but it is hard to focus on all as each requires its own independent house appraisal at $500 a pop. It is kind of a pain, but I still feel we can get this done and I can get us on a fifteen year note so we can pay off the house before we turn 65. For all I know we may decide to sell and move down to the coast in ten years, but it should be on our terms, not what some mortgage company says.
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