Tweet
I was just driving across town, listening to Ilyce Glink. She is your typical personal finance / real estate radio talk show host. What sounded like an elderly gentleman called in.
He has been in his home for about 4 years. He had just refinanced his mortgage from a 30 yr 6.25% to a 30 yr 3.75%. The mortgage at the time was for more than the house was worth. He never gave the actual mortgage amount, but did state he is saving about $200 per month. I am guessing the original base loan was about $100,000.
The catch is he had $5000 in closing cost and they had him sign a note saying he agreed to PMI until there was 50% equality in the house.
He stated that he "trusted" his banker and didn't shop the refinance around because he thought he had to go though the original lender to apply for HARP. He has signed a mortgage, paid the closing cost, he is a couple months into the loan. It's done.
He and Ilyce basically spent the next 5 minutes talking about how he had been had and all the things he SHOULD HAVE done.
What I want to know is what SHOULD HE DO at this point?
There is no point in refinancing. But would he stand a chance if he went further up the chain in the bank and asked for an explanation of the cost after the fact? Should he just be thankful that he was able to refinance and is saving a bit of money every month? It just seems to me like his banker saw a sucker and jumped all over it.
He has been in his home for about 4 years. He had just refinanced his mortgage from a 30 yr 6.25% to a 30 yr 3.75%. The mortgage at the time was for more than the house was worth. He never gave the actual mortgage amount, but did state he is saving about $200 per month. I am guessing the original base loan was about $100,000.
The catch is he had $5000 in closing cost and they had him sign a note saying he agreed to PMI until there was 50% equality in the house.
He stated that he "trusted" his banker and didn't shop the refinance around because he thought he had to go though the original lender to apply for HARP. He has signed a mortgage, paid the closing cost, he is a couple months into the loan. It's done.
He and Ilyce basically spent the next 5 minutes talking about how he had been had and all the things he SHOULD HAVE done.
What I want to know is what SHOULD HE DO at this point?
There is no point in refinancing. But would he stand a chance if he went further up the chain in the bank and asked for an explanation of the cost after the fact? Should he just be thankful that he was able to refinance and is saving a bit of money every month? It just seems to me like his banker saw a sucker and jumped all over it.
Comment