I would like to refinance my mortgage on my first house i bought last year?

Clorinda
Like I wrote, it is my first house and first mottgage so I don't have any experiance.could anyone explain to me what I need to be carefull about and also explain the terms like "points" and "APR". Curently, my mortagage is on 30years, and would like to refinance on 15 years. thanks a lot!

Becki
First of all, if you can afford the payments on a 15year mortgage you should do it. Even at the same interest rate of say 6.5% on a $150, 000 loan, you would save $106, 000 in interest!! While paying extra principle is never a bad idea, most people do not do it consistantly. Its about $400 more per month on the above scenerio. Not to mention 15 year mortgages rates are about 5.25 today. As far as paying "points" that depends how long you plan on living in your current home. For instance, instead of 5.5% it might cost you $700 bucks to get a 5.25%. And if it saves you 30 bucks per month, you would take 700/30=23.3 months to recover your $700. So if you plan on staying in the house longer then 24 months, it would make sense. Just do the math to see if it makes sense for your situation.APR is the Annual Percentage Rate. It simple terms if you added all the closing cost fees, that would be a true rate. However you payment is based on your amortorized rate.

Ingrid
I just got done refinancing. (papers are showing up tomorrow they said) - it took me 4 months - this was going through wellsfargo.I got a APR of 6.37 (although i think you can get it lower now - but, this was first started in December to refinance)always go with a FIXED rate. as for points - I did not pay any "points" - I did the free closing costs at wellfargo. so, out of my pocket was nothing. I did the 3 step thing they have. I looked at wells fargo today - I don't know if they still have it - would have to call about it.In July I went from a 30 year mortage down to a 20 year mortage - and then in December - the rate when Lower - so, I refinanced again. Even though it took 4 months for them to get it done - I was in no hurry to get it done - so, 4 months was fine with me - they are slow - but, I didn't have to do anything.All I have to do is sign the forms and get it notorized, and my job is done. I didn't have to pay for an appraiser or anything of my house - since, wellsfargo paid for everything for me.My first refinancing back in July - I saved YEARS on my loan, this refinancing that I just am doing will save me $10 a month - but, when you add that up for 20 years, it paid off for me. One catch that you have to watch for for people that are refinancing. I did this in DECEMBER which means, I paid my mortgage in Jan, Feb, march - but, they still took the original mortgage amount that I needed to borrow from December - so, What happens to the payments I made in Jan?feb?march? Well- they send it back to me. So, most people would maybe just spend this money - but, I will be sending it back to wells fargo to go towards my principle - otherwise - what would be the point of refinancing if I am adding more on.

Santo
First check to see if your existing mortgage company has a special deal for you. 2nd choice would be a mortgage officer that is recommended to you by some one that has personally used them.Someone on line can mislead you very easy. It is the wild west.Don't pay points. Pay the going rate instead. points is a term that normally means you are buying down your interest rate. One point is one percent of your loan balance and that amount may only buy your interest rate down by 1/5 of one percent or less.The 15 years loan is a great deal. And rates have gone down slightly over the last year.

Rafael
Since you don't have a lot of experience in refinancing mortgages, you should read up on them. After you've done your research, you can start calculating for that refinance to determine if you can afford it or not. There are refinance calculators like this one http://www.whataboutloans.com/tools/mort… that can help you.