Recommendation for a Refi
 

I know some of you are in or we're in the business. Where to go to get the best rate and lowest expenses?

Wells Fargo is trying to eph us!

Try a broker who can shop around for the best deal. If you're taking cash out, I think TX has some different regs there than most other states. So you'll need to deal with someone who can do business in TX. Not everyone can.

Credit Union.

I've got a good quote from a Credit Union, but they are very picky about which types of loans they want to do. Same with local banks. You've got to find out who is trying to do what, but they're all tough right now.

In my experience, CU's are best for car loans, but not for mortgages. Mine has never been competitive in that area when I was mortgage shopping.

I'm just pissed about a fee that WF is charging for NOT escrowing the loan. Broker just called and he could not match WF with or without escrow.

I just did at 2.875% for 15 years Webster bank.

I thought my 3.15% refi was low from Cashcall. Don't know if they are licensed in TX

If you're getting a lower interest rate, then look at it this way. In how many months do you recover the fee and then beginning saving money? It's not a perfect world.

Last time I did this, an escrow waiver cost 25 bps. I had a friend get the fee waived for me though. Banks don't do this for free, as they make a lot of money on the interest from pooled escrow accounts.

James, I am in the refi process currently with Texas Loan Star. Pleased so far with the response times and professionalism with those that I have dealt with. They beat the rate offered by Amegy and Compass banks by a good margin. It is my understanding that bank rates are not as competitive and this played out in my experience.

all banks, CU's etc. are very picky right now - "this has happened before and it will happen again"

they will loosen up in a few years - of course, interest rates will be up by then; as their greed begins to predominate over their current emotion (fear), we will get another bubble, tho hopefully not a big one

then they will clamp down again

Wells Fargo sucks

Rick, we were $367 per month less with the CU vs our (now former) bank on a $75k refi.

Cutting loan from 25 to 15 years, rate dropping from 6% to ~3%, payment about $50 more/mth.

The fee I was concerned about turns out to be normal escrow waiver. However the origination fee from WF is about 5 to 10 times everyone else! We will see how the exact numbers come out of the two low guys today.

Credit unions always seem to be higher on mortgages. Not different here.

Webster is 3.125%
Cashcall is 3.25%

Scott, I'll check them out.

Credit unions (here, at least) just act as a front end and immediately sell the loans

I'm sick of them.

Really?! Wells has been our mortgage holder for years now and they have always treated us well on the refis we have done. They always call us when the rates are in our favor for a refi and so far I haven't been charged much to do it and usually very little out of pocket.

I would point you to our guy but he's out of Santa Monica, not sure he can help you.

Origination Fee is $4200, plus some other $1400 charge (not called points, but I think it is), plus another $1100 for not having escrow...That is before title insurance and other charges...Total comes to over $8K

Everyone else the Origination fee is around $250-500. All fees added up are $2500-3000.

RE taxes in TX are pretty steep, so the escrow waiver may be worth paying. It wouldn't make sense in AZ at all unless it were a $ million + property. But that's still a huge difference in closing costs. Is the rate the same for all those? It'd have to be a lot lower to make 3-4x the closing costs make sense. WF might get religion once another lender requests a payoff quote from them.

I am definitely doing the escrow waiver. They are all the same, around $1100. My taxes plus insurance run $10.5K/yr.

Latest offer is 2.990%, no points, Closing costs including waiver will be right around $3K. And he says he can close in 14 days, meaning no payment this month. Well, I'm paying it, since it goes out automatically tomorrow...just in case.

Payment will go up $42 per month, and I take 10 years and 1 month off my mortgage.

Wow, I did my refi with cashcall for absolutely no money out of pocket, I mean zero to go from 3.75 to 3.15% about two months ago. My loan on my new condo I'm looking at 3.5% and around $2,700 in fees.