Lisa Leister talks about the benefits of refinancing in today’s market.

Now is a fabulous time; home prices have skyrocketed. I’m here with Lisa Leister from Grand Rapids Mortgage to talk about refinancing and what the process looks like. If you have a $300,000 loan at a 4% interest rate, you could get some great savings by refinancing today, and you might be able to drop your mortgage insurance.

What is the refinancing process like?

It’s quite easy. There are a small handful of documents we collect from the borrower. After that, we can refinance and use the equity. Sometimes people have mortgage insurance, and by now, because of both the payments and the equity increase, most borrowers can drop that insurance. There’s no cash needed either; we use the equity to cover the closing costs.

”You can save around $300 by refinancing.”

For someone who has a $300,000 mortgage at 4%, they’d save $167 if we drop that to 3% just off of the principal interest. On a loan of that size, you’d have $100 to $140 of mortgage insurance, so in total, you might save over $300. 

Tell me about our program for self-employed people.

A lot of self-employed buyers have difficulty showing how much they make because they make more than their tax return shows. We have a bank statement program where we don’t even need to see a self-employed borrower’s tax returns. All we need is 12 or 24 months of bank statements, and we calculate their income based on the deposits. 

You’ll still need to have owned that business for two years, but this program lets us help a lot of people we couldn’t in the past. Through it, I can help people that I couldn't have helped even a year ago.

If you need anyone to fight for you on a refinance or purchase, call Lisa Leister. If you need help buying or selling, feel free to call or email me. Both of us would love to hear from you.