Guys and Gals,
I will tell you something about mtgldr. I have read most of the posts here and read almost all of mtgldr's answers. He knows what the heck he is talking about! I have also been in the mortgage business for 29 years. I don't originate loans but I have been involved in most areas of mortgages....including PMI. It has been rewarding but it is super challenging these days. Dodd Frank and the infamous Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFBP) has caused our business challenges like never before. We spend more money and time trying to find out how to be compliant, avoid huge penalties for things that we have no idea if we are breaking some kind of law or not. We spend huge amounts of IT resources trying to code our software so it can help us comply with all the BS laws and policies they "bestow" on us!! Here is the awful truth though. The Dodd Frank bill and the CFBP say they want to help the consumer. I think it is total BS quite frankly. Politicians are the only people that have profited (well attorneys too....sorry for all you legal guys out there :-) ) They, especially the CFBP, is a revenue/money producing machine with absolutely no oversight. They can fine and penalize at will. So, with that said the lenders out there, whether they are private or banks or credit unions, have to be very careful at how we/they lend money. Make a wrong move and it could be costly to the tune of millions (possibly billions) of dollars and we may not even know we made a mistake! All this money, whether you believe it or not :-), gets passed to the consumer one way or the other because it has to....especially if you have shareholders. The other option is companies decide not to lend because it is so costly and the liabilities are so astronomical. That reduces the competition, and the less competition the worse for the consumer. I just read an article last week in Fortune that said that Dodd Frank made lending SOOOOO much worse. Lenders simply don't want to lend as much now.
As far as PMI is concerned.....mtgldr is correct again. Without PMI millions of first time homeowners (and I mean millions) could never have purchased their first home unless they had 20% to put down. I sure didn't have 20% when I bought my first home! It is painful to pay it but the alternative is worse.....much worse! I don't particularly enjoy paying for life insurance or disability insurance because I ain't dead or disabled... but I do. LOL Insurance $$$ is painful but there is a definite benefit. That goes for PMI as well!
Quicken is a great company but I will say this.....you don't get something for nothing. PMI is in their price somewhere. They may actually write the check to the insurer but you are writing a check to Quicken and that PMI cost is there somewhere.
Lastly, and this may have been covered already but if your servicer (the company you make your payments to) wants to refi your home it is most likely that rates have come down enough they are afraid you will refi with another company and lose the servicing value on your loan. The have all kinds of predictive software at what point a loan will refi and the numbers typically don't lie. Mortgage servicers do not want their loans to leave their nest. They would rather lose a little money now to have that loan stay on the books longer. The longer on the books the better and the lower the interest rate the less likely it will refi off the books.
Good discussion!!
I will tell you something about mtgldr. I have read most of the posts here and read almost all of mtgldr's answers. He knows what the heck he is talking about! I have also been in the mortgage business for 29 years. I don't originate loans but I have been involved in most areas of mortgages....including PMI. It has been rewarding but it is super challenging these days. Dodd Frank and the infamous Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFBP) has caused our business challenges like never before. We spend more money and time trying to find out how to be compliant, avoid huge penalties for things that we have no idea if we are breaking some kind of law or not. We spend huge amounts of IT resources trying to code our software so it can help us comply with all the BS laws and policies they "bestow" on us!! Here is the awful truth though. The Dodd Frank bill and the CFBP say they want to help the consumer. I think it is total BS quite frankly. Politicians are the only people that have profited (well attorneys too....sorry for all you legal guys out there :-) ) They, especially the CFBP, is a revenue/money producing machine with absolutely no oversight. They can fine and penalize at will. So, with that said the lenders out there, whether they are private or banks or credit unions, have to be very careful at how we/they lend money. Make a wrong move and it could be costly to the tune of millions (possibly billions) of dollars and we may not even know we made a mistake! All this money, whether you believe it or not :-), gets passed to the consumer one way or the other because it has to....especially if you have shareholders. The other option is companies decide not to lend because it is so costly and the liabilities are so astronomical. That reduces the competition, and the less competition the worse for the consumer. I just read an article last week in Fortune that said that Dodd Frank made lending SOOOOO much worse. Lenders simply don't want to lend as much now.
As far as PMI is concerned.....mtgldr is correct again. Without PMI millions of first time homeowners (and I mean millions) could never have purchased their first home unless they had 20% to put down. I sure didn't have 20% when I bought my first home! It is painful to pay it but the alternative is worse.....much worse! I don't particularly enjoy paying for life insurance or disability insurance because I ain't dead or disabled... but I do. LOL Insurance $$$ is painful but there is a definite benefit. That goes for PMI as well!
Quicken is a great company but I will say this.....you don't get something for nothing. PMI is in their price somewhere. They may actually write the check to the insurer but you are writing a check to Quicken and that PMI cost is there somewhere.
Lastly, and this may have been covered already but if your servicer (the company you make your payments to) wants to refi your home it is most likely that rates have come down enough they are afraid you will refi with another company and lose the servicing value on your loan. The have all kinds of predictive software at what point a loan will refi and the numbers typically don't lie. Mortgage servicers do not want their loans to leave their nest. They would rather lose a little money now to have that loan stay on the books longer. The longer on the books the better and the lower the interest rate the less likely it will refi off the books.
Good discussion!!
