mortgage refinancing

Mortgage Refinancing With a Broker: Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Refinancing With a Mortgage Broker

By Louie Latour

If you are considering mortgage refinancing with a mortgage broker, there are a number of things you need to know before signing an agreement. Mortgage brokers can be an excellent resource for finding competitive mortgage refinancing offers; however, you need to be careful to avoid overpaying for the mortgage broker’s services. Here are several tips to help you avoid costly mortgage refinancing mistakes when working with a mortgage broker.

Mortgage Refinancing: What Are Mortgage Brokers?

Mortgage brokers are a third party retail outlet for securing mortgage refinancing loans. When mortgage refinancing it is important to understand the how the retail mortgage market works. With the exception of banks and broker-banks (which you should avoid altogether) the retail mortgage market is made up of mortgage companies, online web portals, and mortgage brokers. These retail outlets all work basically the same; mortgage brokers sell mortgages for wholesale mortgage lenders for a commission.

Mortgage Refinancing: How Do Mortgage Brokers Operate?

When you apply for a mortgage loan from a mortgage broker the wholesale lender qualifies you for a certain interest rate and provides the mortgage broker with a written guarantee of that interest rate. The mortgage broker will turn around and reissue the mortgage refinancing interest rate guarantee in their company’s name. Do you think the guarantee you receive is the same as the one that came from the wholesale lender? If you said “No!” give yourself a gold star. Mortgage brokers always mark up the interest rate the wholesale lender qualified you for. The wholesale mortgage refinancing lender may have qualified you for a 6.0% loan; however, the mortgage broker marked it up to 6.75% on your interest rate guarantee.

Mortgage Refinancing: What is Mortgage Broker Yield Spread Premium?

The markup your mortgage broker slips into your interest rate when mortgage refinancing is called Yield Spread Premium. Mortgage brokers are compensated with the origination points or fees you pay for mortgage refinancing. Yield Spread Premium is the icing on the cake for many retail mortgage outlets like mortgage brokers. By overcharging you for the interest rate, the mortgage broker receives an additional point for each .25% they mark up on the loan as a bonus from the wholesale lender. In the case above where the wholesale lender qualified you for a 6% loan and your mortgage broker marked up the interest rate to 6.75%, that broker will receive three additional points as a bonus for ripping you off.

Suppose your mortgage refinancing loan was for $200,000, the mortgage broker would receive a $6,000 bonus for overcharging you. The overwhelming majority of homeowners never know they’ve been ripped off in this manner by the mortgage broker. How can you avoid paying this mortgage broker markup when mortgage refinancing? Homeowners that learn to recognize Yield Spread Premium can avoid paying the markup. To learn how you can avoid paying mortgage broker markup when refinancing your mortgage, register for a free mortgage refinancing guidebook.

Refinancing

Best Refinancing
By: Best Refinancing



How can I find the best refinancing deal :

There are a number of factors that will affect the ability for you to refinance now, most importantly value of the home compared to neighboring properties and your documented ability to repay. If you bought your home in September using a down payment, most likely you will have equity available. Lenders are more conservative now than on how much risk they are willing to take, including most likely your current lender...if they are still in business. As an independent broker and correspondent bank, we have the ability to marry you up with the ideal lender for your individual situation with the lowest fees in the industry. Please get in touch with me at your convenience.

Start by calling the bank you currently have your mortgage with and ask their opinion. It will cost you a few thousand to re-finance because you have to go through closing again so, where is that money coming from? HSBC has been the most competitive in New York State and don't carry a lot of Junk fees. They also service their loans themselves.

They will be very helpful to you.

Once you’ve assessed your situation, you can start to narrow down the lenders! Talk to your current mortgage lender first; just because you don’t like your current loan doesn’t mean you can’t change its terms and conditions under the guidance of your current lender. There might be something you’ve overlooked and the best refinancing deal could be right under your nose – not far and away at another lender. Still, after you talk to your own lender, schedule face-to-face “appointments” with as many other lenders as possible. Every lender will have different words of advice for you for your mortgage refinancing – it’s your job to discern this advice!

The best way to evaluate the different lenders is to compare the refinancing deals they offer. What can you expect them to put on the table?

Your current lender will likely offer no-cost mortgage refinancing. But don’t be fooled by the name – there are still fees and high interest rates you may have to cope with. And of course, if you’re refinancing because you have issues with the way your current lender operates, this obviously is not the best refinancing deal for you.

You may also want to consolidate your debts, and that can be a big task! But the bigger the difference mortgage refinancing will make in your life, the more time and effort you will have to put into it to get the best refinancing deal.

But ultimately, to determine if you’re getting the best refinancing deal, you simply have to do a cost/benefit analysis; compare what you’re paying today with what you could be paying tomorrow. It’s worth the time and effort to get to know the different lenders out there so as to secure the best refinancing deal. And if you approach this task carefully, you’re sure to find that there is a way you can refinance your mortgage to greatly benefit your finances. I hope you get the best refinancing deal out there because is a crazy world.