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Refinancing: any tips to find the best rates?

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WFU03

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Pit,

I'm sure some of you have gone through a refinance recently. Some of you might even work in the industry. So, I come to you asking for help.

I've been to the big online sites that let you type in your zip and loan info and then show you a few options. However, it feels like I must be missing a whole chunk of lenders that don't pay for leads in those channels.

Am I right that there isn't something like a flight search engine for mortgage refinancing? If there isn't, then what is the best way to go about finding the best rates?

Is the mortgage business hyper local? Do I need to contact a bunch of lenders individually?

I feel like I'm stuck in 1994 in using the internet to find the best rates.

What am I doing wrong?
 
I’ve gone with a local mortgage broker to buy my first house, refinance it, then buy my current house - they can do that sort of checking for you to figure out not just who offers the best rate (they all will offer a given rate) but who will offer it the cheapest (i.e. charge the least or give back the most in points).

They probably also have tie ins with closing attorneys, appraisers and the like who might be able to offer lower rates for the closing costs.

Might be worth checking out and then comparing their results against what a big boy originator might charge.
 
WFU03 said:
Pit,

I'm sure some of you have gone through a refinance recently. Some of you might even work in the industry. So, I come to you asking for help.

I've been to the big online sites that let you type in your zip and loan info and then show you a few options. However, it feels like I must be missing a whole chunk of lenders that don't pay for leads in those channels.

Am I right that there isn't something like a flight search engine for mortgage refinancing? If there isn't, then what is the best way to go about finding the best rates?

Is the mortgage business hyper local? Do I need to contact a bunch of lenders individually?

I feel like I'm stuck in 1994 in using the internet to find the best rates.

What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Use a mortgage broker.
 
Related: so what should one be able to get as a good rate about now...assume everthing's good/great.

I thought I had a great rate when I refinanced after/during the great recession at 3.25 30 year fixed...I think I could do better now but probably not enough to do it again...?
 
Shop it around. There are plenty of brokers. Helms Mortgage in Greensboro is fantastic.
 
ConnorEl said:
Related: so what should one be able to get as a good rate about now...assume everthing's good/great.

I thought I had a great rate when I refinanced after/during the great recession at 3.25 30 year fixed...I think I could do better now but probably not enough to do it again...?
Click to expand...

This is where we are in the 3's%. Going to let it ride.

Refi is such a pain to do. Maybe if it ever gets down to 1% for 30 yr fixed, but don't see that happening anytime soon, if ever....
 
ConnorEl said:
Related: so what should one be able to get as a good rate about now...assume everthing's good/great.

I thought I had a great rate when I refinanced after/during the great recession at 3.25 30 year fixed...I think I could do better now but probably not enough to do it again...?
Click to expand...

We just locked in a rate of 2.625 on a 30-year without paying for points. If you're looking at a 15- or 20-year, you could probably do even better.
 
Start with Rocket Mortgage. They make their money off of the fees, then immediately resell the mortgage.
 
OldGoldBeard said:
We just locked in a rate of 2.625 on a 30-year without paying for points. If you're looking at a 15- or 20-year, you could probably do even better.
Click to expand...

On a refi? That's incredible.

Anything in particular that led to the low rate?
 
WFU03 said:
On a refi? That's incredible.

Anything in particular that led to the low rate?
Click to expand...

Yes, it was a refi. I'm not real sure about what factors, if any, helped us, apart from our credit score. We actually ended up with two lenders who were willing to give us that rate. LoanDepot was the first, although they initially said they were going to charge us for the points, then waived the fee because my credit score was so great, or some rigmarole--probably legit, but just sketchy enough to concern me. The second place was CBC National Bank, and they were very easy to work with and upfront, so we went with them.

FWIW, Rocket gave me a quote at about 3.25, then called two days later to apologize and say they hadn't given their proper discounts and they had a new offer. I had already gone with the other lender, so I didn't bother talking with them to get the details. Ally also had a very user-friendly system with lots of options on buying or selling points that you could play around with an instantly get a quote on the loan estimate.
 
OldGoldBeard said:
We just locked in a rate of 2.625 on a 30-year without paying for points. If you're looking at a 15- or 20-year, you could probably do even better.
Click to expand...

Damn that's legit. I just got a 2.85 and thought I killed it
 
OldGoldBeard said:
Yes, it was a refi. I'm not real sure about what factors, if any, helped us, apart from our credit score. We actually ended up with two lenders who were willing to give us that rate. LoanDepot was the first, although they initially said they were going to charge us for the points, then waived the fee because my credit score was so great, or some rigmarole--probably legit, but just sketchy enough to concern me. The second place was CBC National Bank, and they were very easy to work with and upfront, so we went with them.

FWIW, Rocket gave me a quote at about 3.25, then called two days later to apologize and say they hadn't given their proper discounts and they had a new offer. I had already gone with the other lender, so I didn't bother talking with them to get the details. Ally also had a very user-friendly system with lots of options on buying or selling points that you could play around with an instantly get a quote on the loan estimate.
Click to expand...

How long ago did you lock in the rate?
 
Well, we went with refinance and got the notice that our loan was clear to close about 2 weeks ago. Well today, (the day before the close date of tomorrow), our lawyer said they have not received any of the paperwork from our bank (???).

Plus, we found an uncancelled Deed of Trust that original lawyer hadn't filed when we bought the house years ago....
 
Don't be afraid to play lenders off of each other.

I received a pretty competitive refi offer from a lender and took that to the bank that currently holds the mortgage. They matched the rate and reduced some of the closing costs to win the deal. Since it's with my existing lender there's very little paperwork to do and they can close pretty quickly for me as an existing customer.
 
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We went pretty far with a Refi with QuickenLoans after the great recession only to find a significantly better deal with a CLT-based mortgage lender. We sent the CLT-based info to QL and they said--that's a good deal...we can't beat it.

So yeah, shop around.
 
Or just pay a little extra each month and don’t worry about it unless you have a really shitty rate.
 
lol @ "give back the most in points" that's not how it works. points are for poors
 
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