Hello all. First, I want to thank everyone that is participating in this thread. A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about refinancing and started to read this thread. Last week I started to send out inquiries and got quotes through Costco (Mutual of Omaha, NBKC Bank, Lender.com, Amerisave, Loan Depot and others), Northpointe, Better, AHC Lending, Quicken, our existing lender (Umpqua Bank), and BofA, with whom we have Platinum Honors Rewards.
Our existing mortgage is $262K, house is worth approximately $850,000, and we also have a $95,000 2nd with BofA that we are not paying off (currently floating at 2.49%). Both of our credit scores are over 800 and we live in Washington state. We semi-retired in 2013 and receive the vast majority of our income through income properties. I'm pretty much looking for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
Initially Mutual of Omaha, Amerisave, and AHC Lending had the best rates. A couple of lenders (Lender.com and a local mortgage company) said they would not lock rate until they had until they had a signed subordination. AHC Lending said they are not taking applications right now with people that own their own businesses or receive most of their income from rental properties. This kind of bummed me out because they had the best rates/fee initially. I spoke with a couple of loan consultants at Quicken and they both said they do not add back depreciation for rental income, which would kill our loan. I also found out later that they do not know what they are talking about because they actually do. So, I decided not to apply with them if their loan officers are that ignorant. Both BofA and Umpqua were not competitive from the get go. In fact, the BofA guy said they are so swamped right now that closings are taking between 60-90 days. Because of that they do not feel they have the need to compete at this time. The rate on their website is it, no negotiating.
I ended up applying with the following lenders:
Mutual of Omaha - 3%, ($270) in points, $350 loan fee
Northpointe Bank - 2.95%, $470 in points, $1195 in loan fees
Amerisave - 3%, initially $256 in points, $500 in loan fees.
Better - 3%, $4200 in points, and no loan fee. I applied based on the $1000 Rate Guarantee.
Better sent their LE Friday night, Mutual of Omaha sent theirs on Saturday, and I still have not received Northpointe's. I received Amerisave's yesterday but they increased the points to $2200. I questioned this and the loan rep said it was because I had not disclosed the 2nd to them. However, I have texts and emails with him where I am clear we have one and I do not want to pay it off. It seems like he just shrugged his shoulders at this. Saturday I sent Mutual of Omaha's LE to Better and asked them to beat it.
After Amerisave's LE showed up I advised him that they are no longer competitive and asked if they would match/beat other LE's. He said if I wanted to lock the rate and then send them a better offer, they guarantee they will beat it. Because of the earlier mix up I decided not go any further with them.
All lender's have said that the appraisal has been waived.
Today, before Better got back to me, Mutual advised me that the market worsened a bit and their points went uo to $1000. Better then got back to me and beat Mutuals deal by $100, stating that today they now only guarantee they'll beat a competitor by that amount, not the previous $1000. I advised them that since I had been working with them since last week they really should honor that program. I then sent that LE to Mutual and asked if he could beat it and he said he couldn't even match it because his par deal had gone up throughout the day. Better then cam back and asked me if they do beat Mutual's deal by $1000 would I lock rate today. I said yes especially since Mutual's deal had now gotten worse.
So, they did and I did. So we are locked at 3% with a $1005 lender credit. And we will receive the Amex $2500 credit, which I was also unaware of before reading this thread.
Better and Mutual of Omaha have been very responsive through all of this. I had questions regarding the 2nd and our income sources and both got back to me quickly. With Mutual I was talking directly to the loan rep which was very nice. At Better, I have talked with associates on my "Loan Team" and have yet to speak with my Loan Expert. This kind of bothered me at first, but things are moving along anyway.
I didn't see any reasonable quotes below 3% that others have seen. We do have the 2nd, which we are not paying off, so I believe that added a little to the rate, and the loan amount isn't that large. That being said, assuming we close we will be pretty happy.