Hey all, I got an FHA loan in December of 2014 right before the MI reduction, so last year, I got all kinds of notes from people saying they could lower my mortgage payment.
Last week, I swore if I got another "loan reduction" letter AFTER the fed rate hike announcement I'd look into it.
I got a letter from a company called Oceanside Mortgage, NJ. They have an nmls# and an A+ rating on BBB, and seemed very friendly on the phone.
They told me they could cut my 3.75 APR to 3.25 and my MI from 1.3 to .8, saving me $209 a month. They would pay closing costs, and there would be a total of 4800 in other fees, of which, I would recieve an FHA MI credit of around 2600 leaving me with a $2200 (Due at closing) deficit. That $2200 could be either tacked on to the loan (Currently278K) or I could pay it in cash. There was no penalty to the APR for adding the 2200 into the loan. This effectively means lowering my payment by $200+ a month and paying nothing out of pocket.....
Is this too good to be true? I haven't heard of Oceanside but the light research I did, did not reveal anything nefarious.
Does anyone have any insight into this, or have any idea if there's something sketchy I should look for?
Also, I was planning to APP for Amex Platinum and BCP after Christmas, is it still ok to go ahead and app for those if I'm going to refi my house, or should I refi first?
Thanks for all the help!
My current lender is Wells Fargo, and like 2 or 3 months ago when I started getting the refi letters in the mail heavily, I called. They couldn't really offer me a much better rate, and I was going to be out of pocket several thousand dollars.
So to get out of this loan with a lower rate, lower monthly payment and less than 1000$ out of pocket sounds amazing.
Can I trust the BBB if they say they are legit?
Also, I've seen not to open new "debt" before applying for a house, but Im starting to travel in January and really wanted to get my AMEX Platinum by then.
I did ask WF for a streamline refi, and she ran the numbers and it would have saved me like 100$ but cost me like 4,000.
I think the primary difference there was that Oceanside (new possible comp) would pay closing costs, except the FHA portion, and I can apply my first month payment to the closing costs.
I have heard something weird about Oceanside, someone said they messed with their escrow account. My escrow account is pretty empty, it just paid my property taxes and I think I have an overage of like 350$.
Perhaps I could call wf with a specific quote that I got from Oceanside and see if they'll match?
So update, I just called WF and they said there was no way they could match the 3.25% apr (i have 3.75) now. The CSR was like, but keep in mind, you get online banking with us, which is really good, and you don't know if the new company will have online banking.
I'm like, no online banking is worth 210$ a month lol.
I havent recieved a fee sheet showing me yet what was doing what, but i will definitely ask for it.
What I got was a breakdown of the original loan terms and the savings. it was given to me in a pdf, customized to my plan but we haven't gotten to the pull credit or fee breakdown yet.
But i'm definitely interested in knowing WHAT questions I should be asking, because I definitely don't want to get taken advantage of
Here's a copy of what I got.
