Should I refi with the Making Home Affordable program?
I just talked talk to my bank and could really use some advice before I make my decision. I believe I meet all the criteria. Thank you in advance! My first loan is a 5/1 ARM with a rate reset date of early 2012. The balance on the loan is $316k. The property value on sites like Zillow and Cyberhomes is between $340k-430k. However, the bank says that my property value according to Freddie Mac’s “spreadsheet” is $282k. If I were to submit an application today and accept the $282k value, the rate would be 5.375% with about 3 points. The guy said that would be about $9600 on top of about $3500 of closing cost. Alternatively, I could pay $375 and go through a proper appraisal process. If the appraised value came in $340k or higher, then the rate would be 5.375% with about 1.5 points. However, he warns that nowadays appraisals come in extremely now and the bank looks at it with a magnifying glass. An example, he gave was if there was a crack tile, you would need to get it fixed before the ba
