Don’t Let “No Equity’ Keep You From Refinancing

Don’t let “No Equity” keep you from refinancing.  With interest rates at historically low levels our phones have been ringing a bit more than usual.  Honestly, in many cases, after being presented with all of the facts we are advising clients to save their money and pass on the refinance.  Many times there’s just not enough savings to justify the expense of the refinance transaction.  In most cases, home equity is non-existent and borrowers simply don’t have traditional options available to them to take advantage of a lower rate and monthly payment.

But wait, there may be hope for some of you!  The Obama Administration rolled out the Making Home Affordable initiative last year and it was designed to help underwater borrowers take advantage of lower interest rates by allowing refinances without the need of a new appraisal.  This is still available for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.  This has nothing to do with your service provider (the lender sending you statements), but the investor behind the scenes you might not even know about.  If your loan is with Fannie Mae, we might be able to help you.  If your loan is with Freddie Mac, you’ll need to contact your existing lender to see if this refinance is available to you.

Want to see if you’re eligible?

Step ONE: Check and see if your loan is being serviced by Fannie Mae by visiting the lookup tool on their website.  If you find out that it is, then you may be eligible for the REFI Plus program.

Step TWO: If your property is located in Indiana and it’s your primary residence, give us a call or complete an application on our website. We’ll take it from here.

The only way we can find out if you qualify for this special refinance program is to pull your credit report and work up a complete loan scenario.  Once we’ve done this, we can submit the loan for an approval using Desktop Originator or Desktop Underwriter, Fannie Mae’s lender approval system.  If you qualify for the program, the approval will come in stating you are eligible for the Refi Plus program and that no appraisal is required.  There may be some additional fees to use this program bases on the amount of equity the database will willing to accept.

If we don’t think this makes sense, we’ll tell you.  If you can save some money by lowering your interest rate and recoop the cost of the refinance in a reasonable time frame, we’ll tell you it makes sense.  This is a great opportunity for many home owners to get their hands on a very low interest so take advantage of this before it’s too late!