On Jan 30, 6:24*pm, Justin <jus...[at]astutesystems.com> wrote:
- quote -


I bought new in Dec of 05, and refinanced in June of 06, 6 months
later. Our refi has already paid for itself based on closing costs.

My goal is to lower my payment 8% with any refinanace (that saves me 1
payment per year). I also try to keep the same repayment period as
original loan (note you would have a lower payment now, even if rate
was the same based on principal already paid and increasing of the
term). If you can save 8% keeping the same term, the deal is even
better.

Justin wrote:

- quote -

I'm more concerned about you being so close to 100% LTV or worse if the
house dropped a bit. If, by chance, you got a 6% 30 yr fixed, you'd save
over $800. There's little magic about the one year mark, but the bank
has no interest in negotiating since you are not in trouble. I would do
my damnedest to aggressively pay down that $50K. And there's no harm in
walking in to the local owned bank, if there's one nearby, and sit with
someone. You haven't mentioned your income, debt to income becomes a big
part of the picture.
JOE

I bought a home last year in July (2007). I closed the week the first
big news of the mortgage problems started arising.

I purchased a $290k house, and had $10k worth of closing costs built
into a loan that was a 30-year fixed for $250k at 9.5 and $50k
interest only for 15 years at 11%.

I have pretty good credit (Fico around 750), but I got hosed because
it was a 2-family and it was based on stated income (including future
rental income).

I have been in the house now for 7 months, I have had a paying tenant
in the second unit for 6 months, and have made many improvments to the
property.

My math shows that if I could refinance even the one large loan
($250k) at a rate of 7.5 it would save me almost $5k a year.

Countrywide (my current lender) said they won't touch it unless I've
been in the house at least a year, is this a gerneral rule of thumb
for most lenders, or just lenders you currently have a loan with?

Is it ever "too soon" to refinance?

Waiting until the 1-year mark wouldn't be the worst thing, I'll likely
be making more money by that time of year, and will have a solid year
of rental income shown in my accounting.

Any advice would be greartly apprecaited, just feeling out my options.

Thanks,
Justin