Refinance Your Home
Interest rates keep coming down and are close to historical lows. According to some experts they should stay down for the rest of 2011 and possibly into 2010. The $50 question is, what happens next. With the U.S. racking up record high deficits and borrowing and/or printing money like it is going out of style, someone down the road is going to have to "pay the piper". That would be our kids and grandkids. The risk of hyper-inflation is real although many say there are factors that would keep that in check. One thing is for sure, this is a great time to refinance and lock in lower interest rates. Many times the penalties charged by lenders for doing this are far less than the cost savings of getting the lower rate.
Of course lenders are reluctant to do this, so this option will most likely be reserved for those with both substantial equity in the home in the face of declining housing prices and those with good credit scores.
Refinance using a mortgage broker
Some things are best left to experts and a good mortgage broker knows the ropes and can negotiate from lender to lender to find the best possible fit for your situation. They only pull one credit report and can use that with multiple lenders in case one deal does not work out.
Their advice is also free and they make their money in the form of a commission from the lending institution. Usually verifying your equity by requesting a home appraisal that the mortage broker can arrange plus filling out the various forms can get the ball rolling. Typically a refinance can be done in about 2 weeks time.
Note that some lenders have buried clauses that do not allow you to break their mortgage or that you have to use them to refinance. These are the hidden clauses that noone seems to know about until you want to refinance and find out your institution has buried language not allowing that, so check your mortgage documents or call your lender to discuss that and verify what the penalty amount would be to payoff your existing mortgage early.
In any case, if you can qualify it may pay to check out refinancing as an option to lower your monthly mortgage payment and also to pay less interest over the life of the mortgage (which can be the single largest savings source you can probably find in your household, what's the point of eating reheated lasagna to save a buck when you can potentially save $10,000 or more with a good refinance, of course there is nothing wrong with reheated lasagna as long as it was good the first time...)