Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Lawyer up?

What kind of refinance rates are you guys looking at?

Ditto on the "no lawyer". We refi'd five years ago without one. If you go with a reputable bank and pay attention during the closing, you're fine.

We were looking at 5.4 through Bank of America, but am now locked in at 4.2 (!) with the new bank. We're currently at 7.2.

We're taking ~40K to totally replace the plumbing, redo our main bath, do some stuff in the kitchen, remove the asbestos from the basement/workshop, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I think we'll be fine w/o an attorney, but wanted other opinions because we just got "the" call that we can close this week, and Joyce has Wednesday off, which works for the bank people. It just seemed so sudden to be finalized after screwing around with BOA for so many months!

When I have a few moments, I'll post about BOA because I'll take any opportunity to trash them.

Well, now that Mark has his answer, I'll dovetail onto it and ask this: for a first home purchase, would you guys use a mortgage broker? A credit union? Just walk into a big bank?

I have used a mortgage broker for all three home purchases that I have done and it has gone fine. I have never used an attorney and like Mark would have been suspicious about who they were representing.

Hi kcarlile,

I would try to avoid a mortgage broker because they'll try and get you into mortgages with a higher interest rate so they earn bigger commissions. I used one and came to that realization a couple years later and re-financed, getting a much lower rate.

I've since learned that if you are of the bargaining sort, you can get significantly better rates. If I were to re-finance yet again (my current mortgage is at 5.8%), I'd try and be aggressive and get a lower rate.

Regards,

I refinanced 8 years ago from 7.0 to 6.0 percent. I used a mortgage broker. They told me that the refinance wouldn't cost me anything, but later found they had added in $4000 to the loan value.

I also had a bad experience with a mortgage broker when we bought our first house. I ultimately played hard ball with them, and things turned out o.k., but it really was a headache.

No attorney when we refinanced about a year ago. Don't know under what circumstance you would need one. I believe there just needs to be a Notary Public stamp somewhere, at least here in Hawaii anyway.

Up to a certain point, everything is negotiable with with regards to rates and closing costs. You can get better rates at the expense of points, get points waived for a slightly higer rate, have certain fees waived like 'processing and documentation' ($500 or so), and may even get away with having the appraisal fee reduced or waived. Like Alan mentioned, it just depends on how aggressive you are.

Mortgage brokers are kind of a hit and miss thing. Check with friends, co-workers, for refferals. When we bought our house, we used a broker. Worked out well for us.

We just finished refinancing today. I'm always surprised that when you refinance, the bank considers it "closing" on the house, even though we stayed with our same bank. I was under the impression that closing on a house has different laws and rules depending on the state. In NY, when I closed on a house, a lawyer was required by law (and we had to pay for him). Here in Indiana, they are not, and we have not had one on our last 3 closures (the original purchase of the house, the refinance at 5.75%, and the refinance we did today at 4.75%).