How Much Should Rates Drop Before Refinancing?
This question has been coming up a lot lately. If you bought in recent years, or are planning to buy soon, you naturally want to know when you can lower your rate and payments.
Financial experts say to wait until rates are at least 1% below your current rate to see a benefit. For example, a borrower with a $400,000 mortgage at 7.5% would be paying $2,800/mo. At 6.5%, their payment would drop to $2,525, a $275/mo. savings.
However, there are fees to refinancing of between 2% and 6% of the loan, and those costs must be included in figuring the value of the refinance.
In the above example, you could save $275/mo., but you might spend $8,000 to get that savings. That’s the same as making 29 payments of $275, meaning it will take you almost 2 and a half years to recoup the cost of the refi. If you’re planning to be in the home more than 2.4 years, you’ll come out ahead. If the cost of the refi is higher than $8,000, you’d need to be in the home longer.
Companies that claim to have “no hidden fees or closing costs” on their refinance, only mean that they’ll tell you what those fees are, not that they don’t have fees. And companies claim to provide refinances at no cost are really saying that they’ll wrap those costs into your loan, so you’ll pay them anyway, plus interest on your fees.
It makes sense to think about refinancing, but it also makes sense not to jump into it without considering all the factors. If you need a good mortgage broker to talk to about refinancing, give me a call. 6154061314
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Is Your Amazon Alexa Overly Chatty?
If you get constant unwanted updates and reminders from Alexa, there are ways to silence the nagging. Jump onto your Alexa phone app, go to Settings, Notifications, and then toggle what you want on or off. If you don’t want Alexa talking much at all, turn on Brief Mode. In Settings, find Voice Responses. Enable Brief Mode. Alexa should acknowledge your commands and tasks with a simple beep.
If you want to keep Alexa’s “by the way” suggestions away, there isn’t a button for that. Instead, try saying, “Alexa, stop by the way.” This will pause it temporarily, but to make it a permanent command, you’ll need to set up a routine: Tap More, Routines, then tap the “+” button. Name the routine (maybe “Stop by the way”), then add a triggering event, such as a time each day (Schedule, At Time). Finally, add an action. For this, tap Custom, then type “stop by the way.” Now Alexa will remind itself each day to stop by the waying you.
Buyers Give Sellers Feedback Through Their Offers
When selling your home, even a thousand extra dollars is important, right? But many home sellers don’t realize that little things can make a big difference when it comes to getting those extra dollars.
For instance, buyers can be turned off on a subconscious level by strong odors, chipped toilet seats, clutter around the phone, dirty kitchen appliances, dirty or broken window treatments, and so on. It doesn’t have to be all of these...even a clean home missing several of these details can lead to lower offers.
Conversely, a super-clean and well-staged home works on the subconscious the way a good smell works on the taste buds...it stimulates the appetite and they want more. Can this translate to more money in the seller’s pocket? You bet it can! A staged and clean home is more likely to get offers at asking price than a similar home that’s priced the same, but missing on the details.
What do you need to fix, and what can you ignore? If you’re going to be selling this year, I can do a walk-through with you to identify areas that need work before selling, so that you—and the buyer—are getting what you most want...a happy real estate deal.