The term “refinance” refers to when you apply for a second loan in order to pay off another loan that was secured against the same property or asset. In our case, we are talking about mortgage refinancing, which is quite tricky to do properly. Home refinancing is an option that is done when you will apply for a second loan to pay for the first one, which also holds a mortgage on your home. Taking this step has different advantages that you need to think about.
Mortgage refinancing makes it possible to gain extra money while lowering the amounts you pay monthly for your mortgage. As you can realize, such an option is highly popular and is rarely missed when the opportunity appears. This is because your home is usually the biggest asset you hold and mortgage payments are usually the biggest expenses you have.
When you go for a mortgage refinancing you will use your house as an asset and you will reduce your monthly payments. As you can imagine, this brings extra money in your pocket because you take advantage of the equity available in your home.
Understanding mortgage refinancing can be a difficult but when you do, you will realize that everything is actually simple. When you bought your house, you were hit with some interest rates that were dictated by the financial environment of the time plus a few other factors like the down payment you offered or the credit rating you obtained.
Interest rates fluctuate and at some moments in time the Federal Reserve will enter in a rate cutting period. This means that the interest rates on the market will be lower than the ones you had when you purchased the house. This is the perfect setting to go for mortgage refinancing. By doing this you will end up changing a higher interest rate for a lower interest rate. This will sum up to lower monthly payments and extra cash in your pockets.
With mortgage refinancing you can also profit from another very important advantage. We are talking about shortening the term of mortgage. For instance, let us think about a mortgage scheduled for 30 years. With mortgage refinancing, you can cut down that period to 20 years or less. It is clear to see that this move will save money you would end up paying in interests. A lower refinance rate will also turnin higher equity if you maintain the same monthly payments as more of it will go towards your principal.
People will also use mortgage refinancing to switch from an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) to a fixed rate mortgage. ARM offer various advantages but if interest rates increase this will not be an advantage at all. If you know that your financial future is stable you should switch to a fixed rate mortgage and you can do this through mortgage refinancing. This also brings more security because no matter how the market evolves, you will still have a fixed amount to pay.
Mortgage refinancing is sometimes available through cash out refinancing, which is different than getting a loan to pay the old mortgage. This can be done because you can use the equity you built in your home. You can refinance everything for an amount that will be higher than your principal but will bring in extra funds as cash. You can thus use the money for various possibilities available to you at the moment.
It is very important that you analyze everything before using mortgage refinancing. You might need specialized help but the benefits are quite obvious