Where to start a refinance—30 year rates are climbing slowly—time is of the essence.

[Anonymous]

Where to start a refinance—30 year rates are climbing slowly—time is of the essence.

I am looking to refinance my home to pull-out some money for repairs and updates. My home is valued at ~$400,000 with a current mortgage at 6.1% with a $125,000 balance. I need about $50,000 cash-out for remodeling. My FICO score is ~700 (up from ~580 over the past 6 years), my wife’s is ~730 (no negatives, just hasn’t used much credit)..

The current mortgage is in my wife’s name only. I have ~19K in credit card debt (56% utilization), a car loan with 3 years remaining (~13K balance); and ~22K in student loan debt. My wife has the mortgage and a car loan with 3 years remaining (~15K balance)—she is otherwise debt-free—with ~7K in available balance cc/credit-line. Our combined income is ~$105K.

I brought the credit card debt into the marriage—so I don’t want to roll it into the mortgage and 1. pay for it for 30 years, and 2. saddle my wife with ½ the debt.

So…where do we go to find a new mortgage? We cannot withstand much in the way of credit inquiries without dropping FICO scores below a critical number—yes I know that multiple inquiries are counted together if completed in ~ 2 weeks—but I also hear from many who take months to get through the mortgage process.

[Lel]

I don't think you're going to get an interest rate better than 6.1% with the current market, but you won't know until you present your information to a loan officer who can give you some concrete numbers.

Have you considered a home equity line of credit (HELOC)? With the amount of equity that you have in your home, you should easily qualify for the best rates out there. You might be able to get a HELOC rate of prime minus 0.5% or better. The interest rate on HELOCs are almost definitely going to rise over the next 3-12 months, but even if they went up by 2% you'd still have a really great interest rate.

[DallasLoanGuy]

looks like your ltv will be below 60% in which fico isnt as important.

you lose a handful of points for one pull and the rest are lumped together..... you dont have any score worries.

inquiries are overrated.