{"id":168,"date":"2014-12-30T17:12:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T00:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2015-03-02T12:20:21","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T19:20:21","slug":"how-to-refinancing-a-home-mortgage-steps-and-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/banking\/how-to-refinancing-a-home-mortgage-steps-and-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"How To &#8211; Refinancing a Home Mortgage Steps and Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/numbers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"numbers\" src=\"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/numbers-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"numbers\" width=\"129\" height=\"97\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> When considering refinancing your home mortgage, the first step is to get all of the details on what you have now.\u00a0 Sure, you have vague numbers in your head, but that won\u2019t help you answer all of the loan application questions, or make a real hard-numbers based calculation about the value of refinancing.\u00a0 What exactly do you need to know before you dive into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bankrate.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">looking for low interest rates<\/a> and refinancing your mortgage?<\/p>\n<h3>Required Information Before Researching Interest Rates and Refinancing<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Balance of Home\u2019s First Mortgage<\/strong> \u2013 Not a ballpark, an exact number according to your last statement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current Balance of Home\u2019s Second Mortgage or HELOC \u2013 <\/strong>Again, the number from the last statement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current Interest Rate \u2013 <\/strong>What are you paying on your mortgage right now?<\/li>\n<li><strong>ARM or Adjustable Interest Rate Features \u2013 <\/strong>When does your rate go up? (The actual date, not just the year.)\u00a0 How much can it go up in the first year?\u00a0 The second year?\u00a0 Each year after that?\u00a0 Is there a floor (minimum)?\u00a0 Is there a ceiling (maximum)?<\/li>\n<li><strong>When Did Your Mortgage Start? \u2013 <\/strong>What day did you close on?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current Home Value? \u2013 <\/strong>Check <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zillow.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zillow<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trulia.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trulia<\/a> to get a ballpark.\u00a0 Print those pages out so you have them for reference.\u00a0 Keep in mind that these values are based on public information at your county\u2019s records office, so they won\u2019t include any improvements you have made to the house.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about it too much unless it was something major.\u00a0 This is just for your calculations not for the application yet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credit Score?<\/strong> \u2013 If you don\u2019t know, call your banks first and see if one of them will tell you what it is.\u00a0 Make sure they tell you the date it is from too.\u00a0 Many banks and credit unions will get your credit score on a regular basis both to keep your records up to date and to be able to offer you services you might qualify for.\u00a0 So, a teller or loan officer might just be able to pull it up for you as a courtesy.\u00a0 If not, put looking into a better bank on your to-do list. You can get an <a title=\"Credit Karma Review \u2013 Complaints Accuracy Legit?\" href=\"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/deals\/credit-karma-review\/\">estimate of your credit score at Credit Karma<\/a> or <a title=\"Credit Sesame Safe, Scam or Legit?\" href=\"http:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/personal-finance\/credit-sesame-scam-or-legit\/\">Credit Sesame<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ok, now you are ready to get started with some research.\u00a0 Having this information up front will not only make your research easier but also more accurate.\u00a0 It is a huge let down to do a bunch of research based on \u201cremembering\u201d that you mortgage balance is $315,000 when it is actually $350,000, only to find out you will have to start over with the real numbers, or worse, just go with the wrong research because you don\u2019t want to start over.<\/p>\n<p>One important thing to remember is the limit for Jumbo mortgages.\u00a0 Right now, this number is $415,000 in many places, but that number is adjusted based on where you live and the cost of homes there.\u00a0 For example, this number will be much higher in San Francisco. It is important to know this number for your area because the rules change if you are getting a jumbo mortgage versus a regular mortgage.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:8eb82c91-f66e-466e-b628-29b76c27ca62\" class=\"wlWriterEditableSmartContent\" style=\"display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">IceRocket Tags: Mortgages,Refinancing,Interest Rates,How To,Mortgage Tips,Refinancing Tips<\/div>\n<div id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:d239e2f7-76a2-4cfd-bfd3-e2e382706857\" class=\"wlWriterEditableSmartContent\" style=\"display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Technorati Tags: Mortgages,Refinancing,Interest Rates,How To,Mortgage Tips,Refinancing Tips<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When considering refinancing your home mortgage, the first step is to get all of the details on what you have now.\u00a0 Sure, you have vague numbers in your head, but that won\u2019t help you answer all of the loan application questions, or make a real hard-numbers based calculation about the value of refinancing.\u00a0 What exactly do you need to know before you dive into looking for low interest rates and refinancing your mortgage? Required Information Before Researching Interest Rates and Refinancing Current Balance of Home\u2019s First Mortgage \u2013 Not a ballpark, an exact number according to your last statement. Current Balance of Home\u2019s Second Mortgage or HELOC \u2013 Again, the number from the last statement. Current Interest Rate \u2013 What are you paying on your mortgage right now? ARM or Adjustable Interest Rate Features \u2013 When does your rate go up? (The actual date, not just the year.)\u00a0 How much can it go up in the first year?\u00a0 The second year?\u00a0 Each year after that?\u00a0 Is there a floor (minimum)?\u00a0 Is there a ceiling (maximum)? When Did Your Mortgage Start? \u2013 What day did you close on? Current Home Value? \u2013 Check Zillow and Trulia to get a ballpark.\u00a0 Print &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"How To &#8211; Refinancing a Home Mortgage Steps and Tips\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/banking\/how-to-refinancing-a-home-mortgage-steps-and-tips\/#more-168\" aria-label=\"Read more about How To &#8211; Refinancing a Home Mortgage Steps and Tips\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[141,144,273,293,361,420,548],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking","category-real-estate","tag-credit-report","tag-credit-score","tag-how-to","tag-interest-rates","tag-mortgages","tag-refinancing","tag-tips","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financegourmet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}