All Forum Posts by: Mark Ossman

Thank you for that link. A lender I just contacted today through my credit union is actually on that list, which is good news. And the current loan is secured by Freddie Mac.

I'm having difficulty finding a lender that will do a HARP refinance on an investment property for a reasonable intereste rate (4.5%). Does anyone know of a lender that has experience with the HARP program and can do a HARP loan without passing a bunch of fees onto the borrower? My current lender quoted my over 5.5% and a second lender quoted me 4.5%, which I was happy with, but they are a correspondent lender and are not authorized to manually underwrite loans--Loan Prospector returned a "caution" supposedly due to the high LTV (95%), which I dont' quite understand since this is what the HARP program is for (high LTVs).

I decided to go with a 30-year fixed based on feedback from this site saying to go with the longest amortization possible on investment properties. My P&I will be just about the same as it is now, but I will no longer have an ARM, which was my main reason for financing. I was able to get a pretty good rate too (4.5%) so I'm happy.

Thanks Cheryl. The issue I have with the 30 is that I will end up paying almost twice the amount of interest over the loan term (120k as opposed to 66k) and the difference in monthly payment is only about $140. Not exactly a huge amount to invest.

..another option would be to do a 30-year fixed. After all, the interest is tax deductible and my monthly payment would be slightly less, which I could use to invest and/or pay down my HELOC. FYI, my "horizon" is pretty far away (I am 34 years old). As long as the ROR on my other investments (stocks, bonds) is higher than the mortgage rate (which it is), I will make more by investing the money rather than paying the mortgage off sooner with a 20-year mortgage. Does this make sense?

No, not exactly. I have one investment property, and it is a 3-bedroom single family home.

Yes, the HARP program only allows refi of the 1st, and supposedly getting the lienholder to subordinate isn't a big deal according to my loan officer.

(cont'd)...until the combined LTV drops below 75% (currently at or slightly above 100%).

All good points. I have decided to go with the 20 year, which gives me a good balance between APR and monthly payment. I should also mention that there is a second mortgage on the house (HELOC), which has a variable rate and balance of 34k. I'm thinking that it would be wise to pay this down as quickly as possible before interest rates climb again? Does this make sense? At one point when the APR was over 8%, I was paying over $300 just on interest.

A 30 year is not a viable option, for at least three reasons. 1) the interest is significantly higher on an investment, 2) the current loan has 23 years remaining (I don't want to go backwards), and 3) the fees also go up for anything over 20 years under the HARP program. I'm leaning towards 20 years at this point.