Mortgage Refinansing Help

Mortgage Refinancing Help: Missouri

“Lenders like pristine credit reports. If you have a bunch of open credit card accounts that you never use (and who doesn't?), consider closing them. It will boost your credit score and make you a much more attractive borrower to a lender. Then, a month after you've closed your accounts, go over your credit report with a fine-tooth comb. It should read that the accounts were closed at your request. (You don't want lenders to think someone cut you off and that you're a bad credit risk.) ”

Mortgage Refinancing Help : Business: Accounting: Firms: Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation: North America: United States : Missouri (0)

Both new homebuyers and refinancers can get free access to the credit reports that lenders use by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com, a website created via Congressional mandate. A free report from each of the three consumer reporting agencies -- TransUnion, Experian and Equifax -- is available at no cost every 12 months. Check for errors; if mistakes are found, don't hesitate to dispute any and all inaccurate and derogatory items.

Short-term mortgages offer lower interest rates than long-term mortgages. You save money by the lower interest rates and shorter payment period. The trade off is a larger monthly payment, but this option can save you thousands.

Changing the term of your mortgage can help in several ways. First, if you were to refinance your current mortgage from 30 years to 15 years, you will accelerate the rate at which you pay towards principle each month meaning your house will be paid off quicker. Also, you will save an unbelievable amount of money in terms of interest because you would likely be taking 10 to 15 years off the life of your loan. Second, you can also refinance a 15 year mortgage to a 30 year mortgage. It seems like it might not make sense to do this, but if you have an immediate need to free up monthly cash-flow and you don't want to take out a home equity loan, this can work out to your benefit. When you take a 15 year loan and refinance it to 30 years you will have the same balance only the payments can be hundreds of dollars less than the 15 year loan. The only draw back to this is you will pay more in interest over the live of the loan.

If you do not plan on staying in the house very long, refinancing may not be in your best interests.

For both new buyers and refinancers, it's important to understand what a no-cost mortgage loan or a no-cost refinance loan really means. "No cost" does not mean that closing costs (also known as settlement costs) have been erased. It means that the closing costs will be factored into the interest rate associated with the loan. Of course, this also means that, all other things being equal, the interest rate associated with a no-cost mortgage will always be higher than one where the borrower pays the closing costs up front.