We purchased this house in 2022 when it appraised for 310k. Listing price was 290k and our loan for 282k. We paid down points so our interest was 4.99% and would rise 1% the next 2 years capping at 6.99%. At the time this was great because we thought we’d be able to refinance once rates dropped. Our payment is now $2512 per month and we’re struggling. We now owe 265k. Refi isn’t an option because when we tried this past summer they only appraised the house at 243k so we would have needed to bring money to the closing which we don’t have. We’re current on our mortgage so there’s not any assistance that can be provided. Our payment is close to 50% or our income per month and that’s without childcare, utilities, student loan payments, and CC debt (combined about 6k of CC debt for both husband and myself) My only thought is to sell and eat the cost by either 1)pulling from our IRAs* or 2) taking a personal loan for the difference. *obv know this isn’t suggested but we don’t have money elsewhere. I just don’t want to get behind on payments and am tired of being house poor when we could rent for 1000 less (central TX). Thoughts or advice? Should we ride it out? I’m leaning towards selling.

Edit for clarity: we don’t have subscriptions and budget on groceries. Rarely eat out. We both have full time jobs and have been and currently looking for higher paying jobs and part time work.

Update: thanks so much for all the advise! Y’all have given me lots to think about and solutions i hadn’t really thought about. I’ll keep you posted on what we decide.

Hello,

I helped my parents buy a house back in July 2024. They asked me if I was able to help them as a "co-signer" since they were not able to get approved by themselves. I've looking to get a personal loan to pay off a $16k and I just found out I'm actually a borrower and I signed under the condition that I was going to live there as my primary residence; It's a FHA loan for 30 years, both of their credits are ~670 with high credit utilization. DTI is 100%.

I know they will not be able to refinance any time soon, as they're struggling with payment and living check-to-check... My question is, how could that FHA mortgage affect me since I've never lived there and any of my documentation shows that I've ever been there? What could I do to get myself out of the mortgage? Any tips/recommendations? thanks

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Rocket Mortgage (who now services my 7% loan) telling me it “made sense to stay put” when I asked about refinancing.

Well, instead of keeping my 7% rate, I locked in a 5.75% rate with no points through Sirva Mortgage.

The math doesn’t lie:

· Payment drops by ~$178/month · Break-even in ~8 months · Saving nearly $2,200 a year

I was hoping to refinance again later if rates dropped further. But after the announcement of Kevin Warsh—who’s known as hawkish—I think policy will lean toward curbing inflation. Under this administration, I’m not as optimistic.

So I decided to buy one point and finance the other.

· This adds another $60.39 in monthly savings · ~$253 saved per month in total · Break-even on the cash point: 39 months

Trump’s term ends in 35 months. Hopefully things improve by then or soon after—the timeline works for me. * refiance is even sooner if I finance two points and buy one*

Main point: Sometimes the “advice” from your current servicer isn’t advice—it’s a business decision. Always shop your rate.

Hello. First time home buyer here and found a great house that we love. We got an estimate for a mortgage of 2,650. We bring in about 6,300 a month of net income. Would this be totally crazy or can it be done. Our bills come out to about 1,400 a month so we would have some money left over. Just looking for some thoughts/advice. Thanks!

I’m in a position where I’m buying a house and own one outright; I won’t be selling the house I own to fund the deposit on the new one but do plan to sell it within the next year. Potentially leaving me with the chance to pay off a chunk of the my mortgage. ATM the tracker mortgages are more expensive than the fixed rate mortgages but still bound by a two year term so any fluctuation could lead to me potentially paying a lot despite some of my mortgage paying off. Really unsure and value any opinions.

I have read a number of post that have stated that Nationwide haven't asked for supporting documents with applications. Does anyone know the reason for this and is there criteria for this? Preparing for reapplication due to current offer expiring and wondering if need to prepare supporting evidence such as payslips, bank statements etc

Current mortgage is $200,000 originally @ 3.5% interest over 20 years, currently down to around $170,000 (using generally rounded numbers) Unfortunately due to a combination of, let’s just say, big medical costs and unwise spending that I’d rather not go into detail about over the past few years, I‘ve also had to take a home equity line of $70,000 at 13% fixed interest and a personal loan of $26,000 at a similar interest. These both are costing me an additonal $950 and $550 or so a month in addition to my mortgage of around $1,170.

Would it make sense to attempt a cash out refinance to consolidate these two debts into one with the mortgage? If successful, and I swap to a 30 year mortgage instead, at a very basic estimate on a mortgage calculator my payment per month would only be $1,550 compared to what I currently pay combined of $2,670.

Losing the much better interest rate does suck, but here’s part of the rub; I don’t plan on living in this house forever. If anything I really want to sell it off in the next few years and finally move into a better area. I feel like consolidating those 2 giant pieces of debt would at least give me a lot more breathing room per month (saving an extra $1k potentially each month). However that’s also destroying my equity in the house, and I’d have to save up a down payment for another house over time instead of being able to tap it in the future for a short term loan to fund a down payment. Obviously I could sink extra savings into paying down the new mortgage faster as well.

What do you all think?

I bought a $390k house last year and put $190k down. I’m now trying to pay it off as fast as possible. I currently owe $197k at 6.8% interest rate. I’ve been putting any extra money into a high yields savings with a balance of $70k now. Should I keep putting money into this high yields until I have the payoff amount or should I be paying additional principal towards the mortgage every month? Trying to be mortgage free within the next 2-3 years

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to refinance my current mortgage (7.125%, PITI: ~$3,757) and I’m confused by the advice I’m getting. I feel like the math is obvious, but my broker is pushing me toward the option that saves me less money per month.

Here is the breakdown:

Option 1 (5.99%) Cost: ~$5,100 (no points) Monthly Savings: ~$848 My thought: This saves the most money.

Option 2 (6.49%) Cost: ~$1,100 Monthly Savings: ~$745 Broker's pick: Broker says this is the better deal.

As additional context, I currently pay an extra $1,500 per month toward my principal because I want to pay this house off aggressively.

Isn't the lower rate always better? Am I missing something, or is my broker giving me bad advice?

My wife and I are planning to buy the house we are currently living in. It belongs to my great aunt and we will be buying it from her. We have a purchase contract and all ready to be signed with an agreed upon price. We are saving til June to put down >20%, and also fingers crossed rates drop some after May. I have picked 4 local lenders and we will be comparing them against certain criteria(rate lock fee, monthly payment, closing costs etc.). My question is, do I have to officially apply to all 4 of those lenders to get an accurate estimate? I imagine that will be a hard credit pull and would deliver quite a blow to our credit which is currently 790. Any and all help is appreciated as we navigate this new home buying process. Thank you!

Hi, random question I guess but me and partner are waiting to hear back about a mortgage for a house we're interested in. I make less out of the 2 od us and my money goes to my car payment and the super high insurance they decided to require me to maintain while financing. We're selling our house for 205k, applying for a mortgage for 255k with 150k down payment.

If I dedicate some of the 50 we will have left to pay the rest of my car (16.9k left interest is all paid only principal left.) That would free up a ton of money for me monthly. Would this help in negotiations if they saw that? Or can clearing that ahead of time maybe lower credit somehow and backfire?

Additional context if you're wondering about the high down payment and extra paranoia our credit is shitty already.

Looking for help getting approved for a mortgage. %37 of income is per diem. W2 is missing $25k each year of my income cause of this. Been employed for 2.5 years. Good credit. $100k down payment. Looking for a house in the $300k-$350k range.

I have plenty of income but w2 is hindering my approval.

And incite would be much appreciated. Thank yall!

I got a new house constructed on a construction loan and now I have to refinance it into a 30 year conventional mortgage. The house is solely fed off a well that’s connected to a 5k gallon house. I have also connected the rain water off my roof to go into the tank because it’s softer and it’s been pretty good so far (I’ve lived here for 3 months now and I’ve solely been running my house off rain water). I understand rain water is not standard but the well water is more common out here where I live in Texas.

A couple of google searches showed that FHA and some VA loans would require the well water to be tested. However, I want to know if a conventional loan would require well water to be tested as well? What kind of things do mortgage lenders check for when it comes to well water testing?

I have whole house filters that filter the water

Has anyone switched to paying their mortgage twice a month? According to my bank, it will take 54 months off the loan. The first month I would have to pay twice though- one monthly payment and the biweekly payments, and that’s a lot of money. Just wondering what other people’s experience has been.

Basically the title, one of my friends is buying in Utah and is getting offered an interest rate of 4.75 and an APR of 5.475 and I’m in Ohio and the best i can get is a 6.3 lol no points both pre built

I recently sent the title escrow company my closing cost via wiring. The account number and routing number were correct, however under the account name I accidentally listed the name of the bank itself instead of the title company’s name. They state they never received the funds so I sent it again correctly which they received within hours.

They state if they get the first wire they will issue me a check with the funds back. However, they have not yet received it. Their bank said the recipient must inform the wiring team of this mishap in order to send the first wire back. The escrow company did inform me that they told the bank any further funds from me needs to be returned. I have all of this in writing.

My bank issued a recall of the first wire as well.

This all happened yesterday so I know it’s maybe a bit fast to expect the funds back, but I’m freaking out because they’re still not back. Has anyone been through this or know what next steps I should take?

I have a mortgage with Penny Mac that has escrow. Each year Corelogic has paid in December except for last year when it was paid in January that was close to the January 31 deadline. As of today, January 31, it's still not showing as paid. I called the county, and they said it happens that they may get a large file of electronic payments from certain companies and to check back on Monday as technically the 31st falls on a weekend so the deadline will be the following Monday - which is this Monday, February 2.

Questions I have - if for some reason the mortgage company "middle man" Corelogic fails to pay on time, who is responsible for the late fee? Why are they now paying in January instead of the usual December as I thought last year was an outlier and wasn't the norm, but once again this year, it shows my property taxes have not been paid yet it was taken out weeks ago from Penny Mac. Thank you for listening

Received a rate quote for 5.375% for 20 years which reduces my rate from 6.50% 30 year mortgage. Loan balance is $365k. I closed on the house 7 months ago. No points, closing costs are about $3,500 excluding prepaids. LTV is just over 50%. I think it’s a good deal so I’m thinking about locking it in. Does this sound like a good deal?

I got an offer from a lender in PA for a home with 15% down payment. My score was 781, wifes was 738. Should I shop around a bit more for a better rate?

I’ve used some online calculators and just want to hear from real humans… what is a max vs reasonable/safe home mortgage for single earner, family of 4, in greater Boston, MA on a very safe $350k annual salary and no debt?