Does your house have to have value in order to refinance? and can you refinance with another bank?

Corazon
To all the people who refinance..Ask your banker to "steamline" the loan..His eyes will buldge out of his head..Its a way to aviod all the B.S. with refinancing without having closing cost associated...Trust me ask your banker..

Asa
Of course it has to have value, why else would a bank want to give you a loan on it. What good is it if they give you 300k and they cant re coupe it if you default.

Rogelio
"Refinancing" generally involves applying for a new loan which is then used to pay off the old loan (and sometimes take out additional monies for other purposes) based on the value of your house.The primary reason for refinancing is to take advantage of lower interest rates - so you should never refinance if it is, in the long run, going to cost you more to do so than you will save.Most banks will not place a primary mortgage on a property for more than 80% of the current value of the property, although some will go higher based on the owner's credit rating (your "credit score" you hear so much about).If you owe more on a mortgage than the property is worth, it is very difficult to to refinance, because you're asking a bank to loan you more than you have assets to secure the loan with."Hey, I want to borrow $100, 000, and if I default, you get this nice $80, 000 house." - It really doesn't work that way.So, assuming you are NOT upside down in your mortgage, then the question is "Do I save anything by refinancing?"If it costs you $2, 500 in closing costs to refinance, but you're only going to save $1, 500 in interest over the life of the loan, that doesn't make a lot of sense, even if you get a much lower rate."Hey, if I pay you $2, 500 so I can save $1, 500, will you take the deal?" is what you're saying at that point.You can refinance with whatever institution you want, generally, although usually they are required to write the check for the new monies directly to your current mortgage holder (unless you're taking out more than you currently owe, in which case you get the difference.)For example:If you owe $80, 000 on your 7% note to Bank A, and your house is worth $120, 000 now, you should be able to refinance for around 5% from Bank B. That would save you some amount of money over the life of the loan, but Bank B would simply write the check to Bank A, and then your payments will go to Bank B from then on.You may also be able to get an additional $15, 000 or so (increasing what you owe to $95, 000 ) for whatever you want to use it for. Of course, that will increase your payments, and lower available equity. Bank B would write an $80, 000 check to Bank A (for what you still owe them) and then write a $15, 000 check to YOU.Easy, no?

Delora
Of course your house has to have value and worth something. If you referring to equity they may not give you much//any cash out. You can apply/refinance with any bank or lending institution. Word of caution. Only settle for a "Fixed Rate" and as low as percentage rate you can get. If you get a attractive "Adjustable" rate it will only be to hook you in. Then as the market prices go up so does your percentage till you may not be able to pay the mortgage and loose your home. With a Fixed Rate it stays locked in at the percentage rate you settled on and won't change.

Cassondra
Yes, your house needs value to refinance. You can refinance your loan with whoever you want. There are several different loan programs available:To name a few: (all % are based on appraised value)FHA allows a 97.75% refi with no cash out allows a 95% ref with cash outVA allows a 90% cash out refiConv allows a 90% cash out refiThere are some programs that will go up to 100% of the appraised value but the rates are higher.

Carletta
Yes, you have to have enough equity in the home to cover the cost of the refinanced amount plus about another 15-20%. In other words, you can typically finance up to about 80-85% of the home's value. You can refinance it with any mortgage lender. Service like www.lendingtree.com allow you to fill out one mortgage application and shop different lenders in your region. Some will offer lower % interest rates, but maybe not fixed rates, and they have different fees and closing costs--read the fine print to make sure you are comparing apples to apples and ask lots of questions to make sure you understand everything. Unless you have a lot of experience dealing with this, it would really be a good idea to ask people you know for recommendation on mortgage lenders in your area--the online ones can sometimes be misleading or at least confusing.

Millicent
no, it doesnt and do not refi with a bank they will give you the deal that helps themselves out the most look in a company that does all types of financial services, such as world financial group they will give you a free consultation with no obligation

Cody
You can only refinance up to a certain percentage (usually 90%) of the value of the house. So they send out an appraiser and check it out. So say the house is worth 100K from the appraiser, but you owe 120K from the previous mortgage. The most you could probably re-fi would be 90K (although some banks will go up to 100% if your credit is great) and you would need to come up with $30K in cash.