I recently refinanced a mortgage AND a home equity loan (both at about
7.5%) for a total of $35,000 at a fixed rate of 4.80 for 5 years; I
used this to pay off both. The loan was called a 1st lien position.
Only $100 closing costs, and this was at a local bank. I qualifed for
this because I had good credit and a lot of equity in my home. I had
not realized I could do this until I read a column in the newspaper
about it; I thought the only thing I could do was refinance with
closing costs of a couple thousand bucks, which of course I wasn't
about to do.



(Otis McNatt) wrote in message . com...
I have a mortgage, but this is an area of life that I'm
not much up on. I heard a bit on a consumer show yesterday
about (and I think I got this right) a "no closing cost home
equity refinance." A woman caller asked about this and the host
said she should consider one; and her situation was that she only
had a principal now of about $17k, with only about 42 months
left on it, with an interest rate of 7%. He said something about
her being able to get a refi at around 4% at present, and something
about it probably staying at that level for most of the time she
had left, with it possible going up later, etc.

This got me to thinking. My situation is that I have a principal
of about $35k, with about 8½ years left (I've been paying an extra
$50/month for the past 3½ years onto the principal). My fixed rate
is 7.375%, and this was a 15-year mortgage (I made a pretty big
down payment, btw). The amount I borrowed was only $45k.
So, can some of you here enlighten me some on this? I figured it's
better to get advice from ordinary consumers and homeowners than
to start calling lenders. Heck, some of you are probably experts
on this. Thanks to anyone who wants to give useful and accurate feedback.
Should I consider looking into this?

---
O. McNatt