If you’ve been paying off your home for a while, you may be interested in refinancing your mortgage. Mortgage refinancing gives homeowners the opportunity to tap into the equity they’ve built up and use it in a way to positively change loan conditions or invest back into the property itself.
What is mortgage refinancing?
When you replace your old home loan by paying it off with a new one, you refinance your mortgage. Benefits include switching insurance rates (Example: from an adjustable rate to a fixed rate), shorten the term of the loan or even decrease the loan interest rate.
In addition to home improvements, with cash out refinance, you can turn your built-up equity into cash.
Find out how much equity you have in your home
Speaking with your mortgage lender, you can check how much equity you’ve built up on your home. This amount is made of the money you’ve paid back towards the balance of the property.
For example, if the value of your home is $400,000, and you owe $300,000, you would have $100,000 of equity.
Prepare your documents and apply
Once you’re ready for a mortgage refinance, you’ll need to gather documents to apply. These documents include, but are not limited to:
- Tax statements.
- Salary info.
- Copy of homeowners insurance policy.
- Etc.
Once all needed signatures and loan conditions are met, you’re given a cooling-off period of 3 days to retract your mortgage refinance request. In this case, you would just continue making your normal monthly payments on your original mortgage.
Refinancing your mortgage is a huge step, so consider taking your time to weigh out the pros and cons.
About the Author
Rudden|Bobruska Team
Gary Rudden, Lisa Rudden, and Nick Bobruska
RUDDEN BOBRUSKA TEAM
What sets your team apart from other real estate teams?
There is no team out in the market that offers what we do. All of us are Realtors, but
we each have specialized roles, which make our team so unique!
After decades of living and selling real estate in the DMV, we have established
ourselves as one of the top real estate teams with our market expertise and
cutting-edge technology. Our savvy high-tech marketing is on every website
and social media source. We have a huge network with other top agents, which
helps to premarket homes and discover homes for buyers before they reach the
open market. Our services include professional in-house staging services, broker
expertise in negotiating and navigating contracts, and buyer representation in all
price ranges. Each client has different needs and we create a marketing plan based
on those needs.
Our most distinct feature is our in-house construction and renovation team. We
are literally a full-service, one-stop shop when selling or buying a home!
How does the in-house construction and renovation team work?
All work is managed and completed through our licensed and bonded construction
crew. No need to call outside contractors. We are like “HGTV,” but we just don’t
have a show! Whether it’s a small makeover or a major renovation, we do it all. Our
sellers love this aspect of our team because we make preparing your home for the
market so seamless. Our buyers love the advice and insight we can give for future
renovations and repairs.
Having a licensed Maryland Home Improvement contractor as part of our team
along with the knowledge, experience, commitment and services that we offer, truly
puts our team as a vanguard in the real estate industry.