All Forum Posts by: Curtis H.

@Account Closed

They don't know my employment status yet, so I don't think that's it. My W2 income is plenty high enough and has gone up from 2015 to 2016. Not to mention they know about my income from rentals. I agree, it sounds "reasonable" but it isn't necessarily a good deal. Just average. I feel like with my numbers I can get 4.25% anywhere. 

@Chris Mason

I know you're out there somewhere.

I have a 780 credit score and just got a quote on a refinance of a $400K loan at 67% LTV. Primary residence. The interest rate was 4.25%. Is that a good rate for my credit score? Also being charged $1750 for title fee and $1500 for lender fees.

I'm getting a couple more quotes, but just wanted to check in with the people who do this more than I do. 

Also if there are any recommendations for lenders or really good programs right now, I'm all ears. 

Thanks!

Jerry W. I thought about that but this is not a case of "buy another one". We struck gold with the area and selling to hope to find a deal like this again is risky. This is a slam dunk area and we don't want to sell it. It's not done appreciating by a long stretch. Area is so popular people are signing petitions about parking becoming an issue on our residential streets. The shops on the main drag are all the rage and tons of renovations are happening. This is going to be a million dollar neighborhood in 10 years. We are sitting on a $400k mortgage. I think it's too soon to sell it. I could be wrong, and you are much wiser than I, but if we could just get a Heloc to fund other deals, why would we be quick to sell?

@Koritas Jones

I just checked and yes they did a hard pull on Transunion only.

Chris Mason I hear you on DTI and being careful. That's why I chose the more expensive option at a 5 year loan. I wanted to keep that payment low when they analyze the DTI. For my situation it worked perfect. Koritas Jones I'm not sure if it was a hard pull but I would assume it is. I will check my activity to see if they did or not.

@Miguel Nava

I am no credit expert but from what I have read, it's what percentage of the max you are at with each card that matters. Try to keep each card at 20% or below, and you are in good shape. What they are trying to determine is if you are relying heavily on those cards in everyday life. I can see why that would make them nervous.

Hello all, 

I just went through this personally so I thought I would share it for anyone else who might benefit. I don't get anything out of this besides knowing it helped someone else. I had good credit but I wanted EXCELLENT credit before applying for a $400K refinance. We all know the difference between 4.2 interest rate and 4.85 can be huge. Especially on a big loan like the ones necessary in California. I read up on it on the myfico forums, it made perfect sense to me, so I said what the hell. Here was my situation, and the steps I took. 

Credit Score 709-720 (between the big three)

All bills paid on time

1 AMEX card at with $16K limit nearly maxed out (this was the problem) at 17% APR

After reading up on this, I quickly realized that my credit card being at 90% of it's max was my big problem. The magic number is 20% or lower for your score to be at it's best. However, I wasn't prepared to drop $12-14K out of my savings to pay it down, because when I apply for a loan they will look at your savings account to make sure you have reserves to make at least 3-6 payments worth in there. What to do?

LendingClub.com to the rescue. I don't know these people, nor promote them, but this was the easiest damn loan I ever got in my life. I applied online for a $12K loan or so at like 7 percent over 5 years and I think the whole process took 4 days. I took a picture of my utility bill to prove I was who I said I was and that was about it for verification of funds. 

I got the money wired right into my bank account, and quickly put it all on my credit card (don't close out your credit card!) I had a couple grand left on the balance. Within ONE MONTH my credit score jumped from 709-720 range to 769-780 range!

The reason is simple, credit card debt is the worst kind of debt on your credit score. The loan that I took from Lendingclub is just seen as a $225 payment every month. Like a car loan. One last thing to note is the reason I chose to pay it off over 5 years and pay 7% interest instead of 3 years and 5%, is because the MONTHLY PAYMENT would look lower when the lender checked my debt to income ratio. I rather them see a $225 payment instead of a $400 payment that they would use directly against what I can afford as a monthly payment for the mortgage. I of course will pay off the LendingClub loan in 3 years since I'll have more money available from a lower mortgage payment on the refinance. 

Hope this helped somebody. I think they loan up to $35K and you need at least a 620 credit score I think. 

John Kesner Thanks for the tag. Very interesting indeed.

2015 taxes filed! Will give it a week or so and then file 2016 and I'll be ready to refinance. Keeping my credit card balance low so my FICO doesn't change. 

I still could use help on the question above about them asking if I rent, what do I say. I know most people don't live in their Sub2 so this probably isn't the most common question.

@Chris Low

That is very good to know. I wouldn't move forward until that happens, but if it does it could be a good play. I am just more and more against having too many rentals in areas that have high state taxes. So Nevada is quite interesting to me.