Right time to refinance?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

We purchased our first house in September 2015 after moving to America from UK in early 2014. It was a bit difficult to get lenders to approve our mortgage because of insufficient credit and work history.  We financed 182k for a 280k home at 4.25% from a credit union who pre-approved us for 490k  . It was a conventional 30 year mortgage. 

I was looking into refinancing and noticed that rates are low for 15 year mortgages as well and I am thinking of refinancing for 15 years and pay less interest!

I have been reading but everything is a bit overwhelming! The loan officer who helped me in my first mortgage was a family friend's recommendation but he is quoting me a higher rate at 2.875% (no credit has been run though).
 
Discover shows my fico score as 793 and my wife's score as 804.   But I guess that's not very relevant for mortgage.

How do I start?  I looked up the rates on PenFed which seemed good . We have a very low Income to debt ratio and not much expenses if that matters.

[echoecho]

Looks like your off and running. Penfed is a good place to start. I'm sure more will come in. 15 year is good if you have the income, less interest the better. Check out the Penfed and NFCU thread and you will learn a lot. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I won't qualify for NFCU!  Are those online lenders like quicken,sebonic financials and all worth it? Their fees and rates seem pretty low. 

I was quoted $4000 for refinancing by penfed. A bit steep! 

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I won't qualify for NFCU!  Are those online lenders like quicken,sebonic financials and all worth it? Their fees and rates seem pretty low. 

I was quoted $4000 for refinancing by penfed. A bit steep! 

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^^^I have had excellent experience with Guaranteed Rate.  

However, terrible experience(s) with Quicken.

The difference between the two is you are working with experienced LO's at Guaranteed Rate and just application takers at Quicken. Stay far away from Quicken - they really have great commercials but have a reputation for failure at the last minute (the week before closing you get the bad news from what I have seen). 

I haven't experienced Sebonic, but they have an excellent reputation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I will look into Guaranteed Rate.  I am a bit sceptical about online mortgage companies but if the word around here is that they are reliable than  I can go through them!

Would by lack of 2 year work history be an issue because it was an issue when we bought our home!

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks! I will look into Guaranteed Rate.  I am a bit sceptical about online mortgage companies but if the word around here is that they are reliable than  I can go through them!

Would by lack of 2 year work history be an issue because it was an issue when we bought our home!

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Is there a work gap or did you attend school and then go to work?

[Anonymous]

I moved to America in early 2014. Didn't start working fulltime at a decent paying job till September 2014. My wife didn't get her licensing sorted out till May 2015 so she started working then at her FT job. Before that we worked at a minimum wage job.  One more thing is I am in my late 50s,I am not sure if it matters though. 

We found a credit union in 2015 who finally agreed to approve our mortgage(after being denied by the bigger banks despite having almost 100k in downpayment on 280k home) but ofcourse it was a higher rate than usual but I  didn't want to spend almost 20-22 grand a year in rent and we found a house we liked so jumped in at higher rate thinking we will just refinance in a year or so.

So the work history is like minimum wage job for Feb to September 2014 and then my current FT job and for my wife it is minimum wage job till May 2015 and then her current FT job.

[Revelate]

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@StartingOver10 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks! I will look into Guaranteed Rate.  I am a bit sceptical about online mortgage companies but if the word around here is that they are reliable than  I can go through them!

Would by lack of 2 year work history be an issue because it was an issue when we bought our home!

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Is there a work gap or did you attend school and then go to work?

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Tangential question: what about if someone stops working, finishes up school, and then goes back to being gainfully employed?   Is it factored just like any other gap which I've dealt with in the past, or is there some other mechanism in place?