MeFi, help me ReFi
September 15, 2011 9:02 PM Subscribe
We're about to refinance our mortgage, and have two questions about assets and income, and how they affect the application.
My partner and I both own our apartment, and are both on the mortgage. I have a stable, full-time job and make roughy 3x the income of my partner, who works various contract/short-term jobs.
The mortgage is a 30 yr fixed @ 6.75%, and we're 3 years in.
Questions:
1) My partner is currently eligible for unemployment insurance. Should she file? The extra income would certainly be welcome, but it's not a significant impact on bill-paying/lifestyle (she still has some contract work).
2) We're also looking at a long-planned kitchen renovation to the tune of roughly $15k. We'd have about $25k liquid cash afterward. Should we hold off? I realize the answer is generally "yes", but I'm wondering how significant this is.
My partner and I both own our apartment, and are both on the mortgage. I have a stable, full-time job and make roughy 3x the income of my partner, who works various contract/short-term jobs.
The mortgage is a 30 yr fixed @ 6.75%, and we're 3 years in.
Questions:
1) My partner is currently eligible for unemployment insurance. Should she file? The extra income would certainly be welcome, but it's not a significant impact on bill-paying/lifestyle (she still has some contract work).
2) We're also looking at a long-planned kitchen renovation to the tune of roughly $15k. We'd have about $25k liquid cash afterward. Should we hold off? I realize the answer is generally "yes", but I'm wondering how significant this is.
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As for your cash situation, you're going to need some cash for closing, on the order of 2% of the loan. You can roll a certain amount of that into the rate, but typically not all. On top of that the lender will often ask to see a certain number of months worth of payments in your savings. Hold off. A refi is fast, we have been very happy with aimloan.com and they claim to do 30 days (that was our experience). I guess my question would be, if you renovate the kitchen, what happens if you need a new air conditioner or a big special assessment from the condo board comes through?
Definitely get that refinance done, though. With good credit there is no reason you should be paying more than 4.75%, assuming 740+ FICO scores.
posted by wnissen at 10:33 PM on September 15, 2011