Of course the problem is that most investments will carry some kind of risk where you can lose some of your money.

It depends on how you feel. It’s really nice knowing that your house is paid for an nobody is going to come along one day and throw you out. It’s one less thing to worry about.

Of course the people that have lots of money are the risk takers who will buy a second house to lease out or play the stock market. It’s all down on personal preference, sounds like you and your husband have different ideas.

Halfway house would be to invest some and high interest savers account for the rest. (That way they money in the savings account will be earning more interest that you’re paying on the mortgage but you don’t have to worry about losing it)

If you refinance, you will incur a property appraisal fee to estimate the value of your home; an application fee, which may not be refunded if you are turned down for credit; “points” (one point equals 1 percent of the credit limit); and closing costs, including fees for attorneys, title search, mortgage preparation and filing, property and title insurance, and taxes.

Then when the new loan is approved, you will be paying almost all interest for at least the first half of the loan.

The bottom line is continue paying your current loan for the next two years and pay it off.

You have some options if you would really like to pay your mortgage faster and this would include increasing your payments, lump sum payments, increase or add more payment schedules, shorten the time frame of the loan and of course refinancing.

All have their corresponding added responsibilities. Try consulting a professional or someone who knows more on this.

The amount of fee’s vary and would be dependent on (not limited to) attorney fee’s, loan application fee, title search, appraisal fee, land survey fee etc.

Bottom line is, if you are really able and ready to pay your mortgage earlier than agreed upon.

I hope you find the right alternative.

Pay it down faster by adding money to each payment.

If you did a regular rate & term refinance, you could keep the same loan amount of about 141K, but then you’ll have to bring in $ to close to cover closing costs. It will reduce your payments probably about $ 70 or so per month is my guess. You’ll probably have to bump up the loan amount to around 143K in order not to bring in money to close, but if you keep it for at least few years it will be worth the reduction in rate. Ask your broker if you can take a slightly higher rate for him to pay your closing costs- that is also an option.

If you have decent credit (720+) you should be able to easily get a 6% rate. 6.35% is about the going rate for cashout refinances.

You’ll still have to pay PMI since you don’t yet have 20% equity in the home.

The lender is using your mortgage as a debt consolidation loan. You’re taking all sorts of little and moderate debts–ones that’ll be paid off soon–and putting them into a 30 year mortgage. Your laptop, for instance, will be worth zero in a couple of years (heck, it’s a lease, not even a purchase), but you’re rolling that debt into a loan that extends for 30 years. Very bad idea.

You’d get to “skip” two payments. I’m sure those payments are wrapped into the mortgage, too. So, you save maybe $ 2,000 from skipping two payments…but you end up owing $ 2,000 in principle and probably around $ 4,000 in interest. Very bad idea.

As someone else noted, if your interest rate on the student loans is below 6.35%, you’d be trading lower-rate loans for a higher-rate loan. And, again, for 30 years.

Also, take a look at the APR on the new mortgage. I’ll bet it’s a lot higher than 6.35%. (It’s normal for the APR to be slightly higher than the state rate; how much higher is the issue.) I’m guessing there are a few thousand dollars worth of junk fees thrown in there.

Also, how’s he getting rid of the PMI? You’re estimating your house might appraise for $ 160,000. (Get a Realtor to do a CMA on the property.) You’d owe $ 152,000. That’s a 95% loan. Maybe he’s doing what was done a couple of years ago–an 80% without PMI and a 15% with PMI. You’d have almost no equity, as you already recognize. And what if property values decline? You’d be upside down–owing more than the property is worth. Even at those figures, $ 160,000 value, $ 152,000 owed, if you had to sell, you’d have to bring $ 8,000-$ 10,000 to closing.

It’s a terrible deal for you.

Hope that helps.

In this real estate market, I would not increase the total debt on your home. No one knows if we are at the bottom of this housing slump. And no one will know until we are already past it and values start increasing again.

What about the Federal requirements of background and credit checks and audits of your own tax returns for several years your liability policy of a minimum 2 million dollars and on and on and on.

With uncle sam taking over our financial industry it is hard to tell what new regs will be thrown at independent any things.

marksaveshomes.com

Mortgage companies barely give you enough time to close as it is to get a good rate, much less a 12 month grace period.

The silver lining here is—- Obama has this economy so damned screwed up, that you wont have to worry about “locking” the interest rate. The rates will be pretty much where they are now in a year’s time, as this economy isnt going anywhere anytime soon. The Feds are looking at buying up all the low-interest bonds as it is to retire the savings bonds they have out at 7%+…

My advice to you is to wait it out. In a year’s time the housing market will still be in the toilet, prices will still be at historic lows, as will interest rates. Dont believe me??? Look at the last 2 years. 20009 is 2 years AFTER the housing meltdown.. and things are STILL in the crapper in 2011…

Mortgage approval requirements are tight. Work on cleaning up your credit and saving a nice downpayment.