If you’re in the market for a mortgage refinance, taking advantage of today’s best refinance rates isn’t hard to do. What is difficult for many homeowners is avoiding unnecessary fees and markup of today’s lowest refinance rates. Here are several tips on finding the best refinance companies while avoiding lender junk fees and markup from Kathy Kristof at CBS Money Watch:
Any time you launch a refinance loan, you’re going to get something called a “good faith estimate” of the closing costs. These costs include loan origination fees (often called “points”), as well as the cost of appraisals, title insurance, credit reports and the like. These fees can add thousands of dollars to the cost of your mortgage and they’re negotiable.
One of the most common mortgage mistakes is not negotiating fees like the title insurance, appraisal, and loan processing fees. The reason you want to pay as little as possible closing on your mortgage refi is that this is not just cash out of your pocket but you’ll have to recoup these expenses from your lower payment amount before gaining any benefit from the mortgage refinance.
Comparison shopping with the Good Faith Estimate is difficult because there are no standards for lenders to follow when preparing their statements making an apples-to-apples comparison of fees across various lenders nearly impossible. Your best bet for avoiding unnecessary fees and markup on your mortgage refinance is to shop for the right person to arrange your mortgage refi. Find the right broker and you’ll not only save on the loan origination fee but you’ll avoid all the tricks lenders use disguising junk fees in their loan documents.
You can learn more about avoiding lender junk fees on your next mortgage refinance by checking out my free Underground Mortgage Refinance Videos.
My name is Rob Regehr and I’m a personal finance writer with a chip on my shoulder for banks and brokers that take advantage of my friends and neighbors.
