POLL: Are you under water on your mortgage?

[enduser]

So, if this is a no-appraisal program and I tell them my house is worth 75k instead of 175k, am I a better prospect for this loan?

Unless your first mortgage is backed by Fannie or Freddy (which I didn't know until I ran mine through a checker), you are flat out not eligible for HARP. My response was geared more towards Brandy's notion that her partner might help you get to a hassle-free refi some other way - I don't believe that's possible, no matter who your broker is.

http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

And don't forget

https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

[SteveD]

We've just been approved for a HARP re-fi through SunTrust, who holds the current mortgage.  No appraisal, reduced fees, minimal paperwork. 

We'll be going from 5.125% to 4.125%.  I opted for a 25 yr term instead of 30, so the monthly amount won't go down quite as much as it would have if I'd stayed at 30 yr, but we'll still save about $200/month.  Roughly $3K in closing costs will be rolled into the new 25-yr mortgage.  So original purchase July 2007, then a re-fi in March 2009, now another re-fi three years later.

[LClayton]

We've just been approved for a HARP re-fi through SunTrust, who holds the current mortgage.  No appraisal, reduced fees, minimal paperwork. 

We'll be going from 5.125% to 4.125%.  I opted for a 25 yr term instead of 30, so the monthly amount won't go down quite as much as it would have if I'd stayed at 30 yr, but we'll still save about $200/month.  Roughly $3K in closing costs will be rolled into the new 25-yr mortgage.  So original purchase July 2007, then a re-fi in March 2009, now another re-fi three years later.

Yeah, Suntrust reached out to us as well.  About the same deal.  They sent an appraiser, we'll know soon enough what he comes up with. Our refi not contingent on anything he says, really - so not sure how 'realistic' the appraisal will be.  I'm pretty curious, nonetheless. 

[Mudd]

I am really at a loss in trying to figure out what to do with this place. We love it, but would like some more space.  We are SO underwater. I purchased it at $185K in 2006 and the latest comps are about $80K.

The good news is that our monthly payments (interest-only) are low and my main loan is only 3% interest. The bad news is that I have absolutely no equity in it to refi the 2nd loan which is at about 7%. I am not putting any additional payments towards equity as I'm pretty sure that would be a waste of $$... just not sure.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel - there are people that are starting to buy condos here to fix them up and resell. That wasn't happening a year ago.

[mongo]

Did you have mortgage insurance on your prior loan?  I do, and that seems to be a major problem with my attempts to refinance my house.

Who was your contact at SunTrust?

We've just been approved for a HARP re-fi through SunTrust, who holds the current mortgage.  No appraisal, reduced fees, minimal paperwork. 

We'll be going from 5.125% to 4.125%.  I opted for a 25 yr term instead of 30, so the monthly amount won't go down quite as much as it would have if I'd stayed at 30 yr, but we'll still save about $200/month.  Roughly $3K in closing costs will be rolled into the new 25-yr mortgage.  So original purchase July 2007, then a re-fi in March 2009, now another re-fi three years later.

[SteveD]

Did you have mortgage insurance on your prior loan?  I do, and that seems to be a major problem with my attempts to refinance my house.

Who was your contact at SunTrust?

We've just been approved for a HARP re-fi through SunTrust, who holds the current mortgage.  No appraisal, reduced fees, minimal paperwork. 

We'll be going from 5.125% to 4.125%.  I opted for a 25 yr term instead of 30, so the monthly amount won't go down quite as much as it would have if I'd stayed at 30 yr, but we'll still save about $200/month.  Roughly $3K in closing costs will be rolled into the new 25-yr mortgage.  So original purchase July 2007, then a re-fi in March 2009, now another re-fi three years later.

No mortgage insurance on the old mortgage.  Here's the guy's email electronic signature.   

Brian Shelton
Sales Manager, VP
NMLS# 659052
PRESIDENT'S TEAM MEMBER
SunTrust Mortgage
4555 Mansell Road, #110
Alpharetta, GA 30022
 

678.319.4127 phone
678.297.4438 fax
brian.shelton@suntrust.com

[LClayton]

Did you have mortgage insurance on your prior loan?  I do, and that seems to be a major problem with my attempts to refinance my house.

Who was your contact at SunTrust?

We've just been approved for a HARP re-fi through SunTrust, who holds the current mortgage.  No appraisal, reduced fees, minimal paperwork. 

We'll be going from 5.125% to 4.125%.  I opted for a 25 yr term instead of 30, so the monthly amount won't go down quite as much as it would have if I'd stayed at 30 yr, but we'll still save about $200/month.  Roughly $3K in closing costs will be rolled into the new 25-yr mortgage.  So original purchase July 2007, then a re-fi in March 2009, now another re-fi three years later.

We do, but Suntrust is our current mortgage holder, so that might be why it wasn't an issue 

[enduser]

I'm closing on my HARP II refi tomorrow.

That's about 3 months and change from when I applied. For a "no paperwork" mortgage, there was a fair bit of paperwork. But it wasn't the refinancing bank's fault - it was my second mortgage dragging their feet in providing the proper paperwork to subordinate in the new loan agreement. That caused a snowball of pain (in which I also heard the excuse that their customer service department "doesn't have a phone and only works through faxes.") But I'm on the other side of it and should be putting ink to paper tomorrow. I think for most people, it would be a reasonably low-pain process. And if you're only holding one mortgage, way easier.

[SteveD]

I'm in the middle of the process right now and it's been several weeks since I've heard anything from my banker, but he also told me at the onset "you signed what you need to sign, just forget about it and I'll take care of the rest".

[eremine]

Need advice!  We don't qualify for Harp 2 because of something to do with the PMI.  Trying to figure out if it's worth it to get our house appraised to see if we could just do a traditional re-fi.  Anyone else had a 2/1 in the neighborhood appraised lately?  We've got a roomy house, a partially finished basement and a huge screened porch on the back.  What was your 2/1 appraised at?   

[ttodd27]

We just submitted our paperwork for HAMP last/this week (the fax didn't come through clearly the first time, apparently.) From our conversation with the Consumer Credit Service we first contacted, our payment could drop a couple hundred bucks. Which would be awesome.

Note - HAMP is not for underwater mortgages, rather financial difficulties due to unemployment. But, we are underwater as well.

[mongo]

So which lender did you use?

I'm closing on my HARP II refi tomorrow.

That's about 3 months and change from when I applied. For a "no paperwork" mortgage, there was a fair bit of paperwork. But it wasn't the refinancing bank's fault - it was my second mortgage dragging their feet in providing the proper paperwork to subordinate in the new loan agreement. That caused a snowball of pain (in which I also heard the excuse that their customer service department "doesn't have a phone and only works through faxes.") But I'm on the other side of it and should be putting ink to paper tomorrow. I think for most people, it would be a reasonably low-pain process. And if you're only holding one mortgage, way easier.

[enduser]

So which lender did you use?

I'm closing on my HARP II refi tomorrow.

That's about 3 months and change from when I applied. For a "no paperwork" mortgage, there was a fair bit of paperwork. But it wasn't the refinancing bank's fault - it was my second mortgage dragging their feet in providing the proper paperwork to subordinate in the new loan agreement. That caused a snowball of pain (in which I also heard the excuse that their customer service department "doesn't have a phone and only works through faxes.") But I'm on the other side of it and should be putting ink to paper tomorrow. I think for most people, it would be a reasonably low-pain process. And if you're only holding one mortgage, way easier.

PNC. They were also the holder of my original mortgage.

[Gibbga]

Thanks for all the info y'all. I just poked my head in here to see why this thread was still getting posts after a year or so. I had been meaning to look into refinancing, but I just never took the time. My mortgage payment isn't killing me but having not received a raise in 5 years is. It looks like I can cut down my payment and shorten the term of the loan. So come next week, I'll be on the phone with SunTrust.

[Mudd]

PNC. They were also the holder of my original mortgage.

PNC? How do you like them? My RBC 2nd mortgage got transferred over to PNC. I was used to paying my RBC mortgage about a week late as there were no penalties and it worked with my budget, but PNC would have no such thing. So, it was due on the 15th, I sent it in on the 20th, and got about 3 calls from them starting on the 18th - they actually threatened to ding my credit! Nobody messes with my credit. I thought the 1st call would be a "welcome to PNC" or something, but it sounded more like the Mafia!