Why is refinancing a home complicated, time consuming, and costly? Its closing costs are similar to those of buying a new home. Same with the process – it’s very similar.
It’s painful and time consuming.
Especially if it’s your first time refinancing your home and are looking for all the alternatives, pros and cons. Add that on top of dealing with a professional that can’t explain financial concepts, benefits, advantages and disadvantages well to the normal, common, every-day-person.
Like everything else, I ended up doing my own research, reading online articles, going through forums, and watching videos about refinancing a home. It was day and night compared to talking with someone on the phone.
Learnings
There are several ways one can go about refinancing a home. The one that interested me was the no-closing-cost refinance, which means that the closing costs go either to your principal or to a higher interest rate. You don’t pay closing costs upfront, which are usually around 3-5% of your loan – don’t quote me on this as I’m not a professional. 😄
The benefit would be that you don’t pay a few thousand dollars upfront. This would only make sense if you plan to live at your refinanced home for less than five years. Otherwise, you would end up paying much more through monthly payments interest rate.
Veredict
Pay the refinance closing upfront, if you can and if you plan to live there for the long term.
How was your experience refinancing your home?
Do you have someone you would recommend?
Drop your comments below. 🙂
Richard Chan 