Explain Refinancing a Home Like I’m a Five Year Old

In this article I will explain refinancing a home. At this time, refinancing is a popular topic. Even though interest rates may not be at their lowest point, many people are considering refinancing. The whole process can be confusing and you shouldn’t be embarrassed by needing someone to explain refinancing a home.Many times when you are trying to get into your first home you take whatever finance options you can get. Many people have extenuating financial circumstances and they can’t get a competitive loan. Once you get a loan and get into the house, you are happy and say thank you over and over to the lender. After you’ve had the loan awhile you start to think if perhaps you could have gotten a better deal if you had looked around a little more. Or perhaps your financial situation has changed for the better and you can demand better terms.Whatever the reason, there are things you need to consider when you start thinking about whether it’s worth it to refinance a home mortgage. I will briefly explain refinancing a home and the things you need to consider.When you refinance a home, you are getting another loan to pay off the original loan. If you’ve had the loan for awhile you have paid down the loan a little and don’t owe as much as at first. If that’s the case, you don’t have to take out as large a loan as the first time to pay off the original loan and your payments will be smaller. If you get a lower interest rate, the payments will also be smaller. These two scenarios together can create significant monthly savings.You need to first consider the interest rate. Usually to make it worthwhile, the interest rate should be 2% lower than your current mortgage rate. This is the biggest factor unless you are trying to refinance a loan that is about to have a balloon payment come due or an adjustable rate that is going sky high.Check your mortgage documents and make sure you don’t have any prepayment fees. If you do have some, you need to take this into consideration when thinking about the total costs associated with the loan. All loans have closing costs. If a lender advertises ‘no closing costs’, it is because they are rolling the costs into the actual loan. The loan amount will be higher to cover the closing costs. If you get a lower interest rate but the closing costs are high, it will take several years to make up the different and make the refinance worthwhile.