Author Topic: Refinance with Bank of America?  (Read 4709 times)

plotina

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Refinance with Bank of America?
« on: October 20, 2016, 10:07:05 PM »
Hello, I'm mostly a lurker, but I'm about to make an important financial decision, so today I'm here looking for advice.

I currently have an ARM, and the rate resets in 5 years. I have 5 more years with a great interest rate, but it seems so unlikely that rates will be as low as today 5 years from now that I'm thinking about refinancing into a fixed rate.

I have requested quotes from the broker who did my current mortgage and several banks, and Bank of America is offering me the best rate by far. The second best is from CapWest mortgage. Closing costs are comparable. CapWest's quote is 25 basis points higher than the one from BofA.

I was initially tempted to go with BofA, but online reviews have scared me away. I'm now considering going with the higher rate, just because CapWest has much better reviews and they seem to make the process much easier.

Does anybody have any experience with BofA? Would you get a mortgage with them again?

Thanks for reading.
 

obstinate

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2016, 12:03:45 AM »
Sending a check to BofA every month is no different than any other bank. Unless you are a fool, you will never speak with them again after you sign the note. Plus, your mortgage will likely be sold within months of you making it anyway. TAKE THE LOWEST RATE WITH THE LOWEST FEES.

BlueHouse

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2016, 03:53:19 AM »
Lowest rate w lowest fees is correct.

But, have you thought about how long you will stay in the house?  What are the terms for rate adjustment?  How much can they raise it per year?  What is the cap?  I have an ARM on my condo. It adjusts every year. I've been sweating it for 7 years because rates could only go up. Well, rates went down and I'm at a lower rate now then when I opened the loan, even though for the past two years the rate increased. I'm still under 3% on that loan. Now I don't bother because I'll probably sell that property (or because I can't get a better rate because it is not owner occupied anymore).

If you're sure you'll be in that place significantly longer than 5 years, then it's prob a good move, but if not, then ...

MrRealEstate

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2016, 04:29:43 AM »
You can look into Sofi. No closing costs definitely helps steer things in their favor.

Enigma

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2016, 05:31:09 AM »
It has been years since I had a mortgage with BoA but I had no issues.  I would go with the lowest rate and best terms.

thd7t

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2016, 06:48:02 AM »
I had my first mortgage with BoA. They administrated it fine. They sold it after a year or two, but that went very smoothly. I would seriously consider looking at lending tree if you don't mind a lot of calls/email. I refinanced using them a couple of years ago and saved a bunch of money over what BoA offered.

Another Reader

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2016, 07:46:41 AM »
I would avoid Lending Tree.  Lending Tree is an aggregator that sells your information to subscribing lenders.  You will not get the best rate and terms by using them.  You will get phone calls from every high pressure, scummy mortgage broker out there.  If your file is easy to underwrite (W-2 income, good credit), try Aimloan.com.  Aimloan is a no frills mortgage broker that does everything on-line.  You can put in your information and get a set of loans and terms that correspond to your inputs.  Rates and terms are excellent.

I personally dislike B of A's mortgage servicing.  Their servicing is done by the old Countrywide organization.  Poor customer service is putting it nicely.  However, you have no choice about who your servicer is.  Your loan will be sold to Fannie or Freddie, and they will sell the servicing rights to someone else. 

Axecleaver

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2016, 11:19:29 AM »
I bought in 2010 through BofA. I worked for an audit firm, and I was barred from doing business with any local banks, as they audited all of them. Granted, this was coming out of the subprime disaster, so there was a lot of procedural changes in progress. Absolutely horrible experience, took me over 100 hours to finalize the loan. Then ee had some drama at closing that my attorney navigated successfully, but it looked like the deal was in danger until the very end. Servicing made a lot of mistakes, and it took time to clear them up. After the first year, servicing worked out OK. Would not recommend.

Also be sure to compare closing costs. B of A charges a lot of "junk fees" to make up for their lower rates, like doc fees and high assessment fees. You can negotiate some of those down, but it takes time and effort.

BlueHouse

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2016, 12:03:29 PM »

Also be sure to compare closing costs. B of A charges a lot of "junk fees" to make up for their lower rates, like doc fees and high assessment fees. You can negotiate some of those down, but it takes time and effort.

My SIL is a real estate attorney.  I'm lucky that she previews all the paperwork and just crosses certain fees out.  She knows what is needed and what's not and what is negotiable.   She uses a thick pen and no one has ever batted an eye other than to say "ok, we can work with that" .  I wish I could share, but I've never really paid too much attention when she's looking out for me.

Stlbroke

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2016, 12:50:04 PM »
I recently refinanced and Bank of America had the highest rates and closing costs of the 5 mortgage lenders I talked to. They offered 3.6 and i ended up with 3.25

frugaliknowit

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2016, 01:09:34 PM »
I had a BofA Mortgage out of the Countrywide fiasco (Countrywide went under).
No problems.

The most important thing is your break even analysis (make sure you are planning on holding the property long enough).

Catbert

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2016, 03:58:57 PM »
I've hated BofA for the 40 years I've been an adult.  Back in the day they would royally fuck up people's checking accounts (not mine b/c I used a credit union).  But about 10 years ago I got a mortgage with them b/c they had a best deal.  I figured that they would sell it in a year or two.  I re-fi went okay (I have no particular memory of it).  However, they regularly fucked up impounds.  Didn't pay insurance.  So then I dropped impounds and paid insurance and property taxes directly.  Every few years they would change the address insurance binders had to be sent to  and didn't notify insurance companies directly.  On at least one occasion they put in place an insurance policy on my property b/c they didn't get the binder.  (I got a nice settlement from that a few years later as the result of a class action suit.)  They never sold my mortgage.  :-(  Eventually I paid off.

Would I do business with them again?   Yea, if they really had the best deal. <sigh>

RedmondStash

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2016, 08:41:30 PM »
We refinanced earlier this year with a HELOC through BofA because they're our bank, and they had the best rates. No problems thus far.

But I hear that credit unions have better rates yet for regular mortgages.

Our mortgage has been resold many times over the past 20+ years, so yeah, it may not stay at BofA for long.

freya

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2016, 03:18:33 PM »
I had a terrible mortgage experience with BoA.  Since then I will not do business with them for any reason.

There were two major issues.  First, when I refinanced with a different lender, they took longer than the legally mandated 60 days to locate my cooperative apartment share certificate.  This triggered lock period overage penalties of around a thousand dollars.  I called BofA about this multiple times, but was repeatedly told that they would not cover those penalties. They also told me in so many words that I'd lose any battle with them, so they were pretty much free to ignore the law.

Like a true mustachian, I had been prepaying my mortgage right up to the refinance.  While the refi was in progress, instead of applying the mortgage against the principle, they suddenly decided to credit them toward future payments.  Effectively that meant I was lending them money interest-free.  Not only that, but at the refi they didn't count those future payments towards my mortgage balance.  I had quite a fight with them to recover the funds.

I nearly walked out of the refi, since the costs were way higher than I was projecting, but after calculating that I would recoup the money in two years with the new lower rate AND get away from BofA, I went through with it.   Completely worthwhile.

« Last Edit: October 22, 2016, 03:21:15 PM by freya »

MrRealEstate

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Re: Refinance with Bank of America?
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2016, 07:31:08 AM »
I would avoid Lending Tree.  Lending Tree is an aggregator that sells your information to subscribing lenders.  You will not get the best rate and terms by using them.  You will get phone calls from every high pressure, scummy mortgage broker out there.  If your file is easy to underwrite (W-2 income, good credit), try Aimloan.com.  Aimloan is a no frills mortgage broker that does everything on-line.  You can put in your information and get a set of loans and terms that correspond to your inputs.  Rates and terms are excellent.

I personally dislike B of A's mortgage servicing.  Their servicing is done by the old Countrywide organization.  Poor customer service is putting it nicely.  However, you have no choice about who your servicer is.  Your loan will be sold to Fannie or Freddie, and they will sell the servicing rights to someone else.

I use a fake phone number for lending tree because the calls are so bad. Last time i used the number for the IRS.

I've never used aimloan but do get their daily emails for interest rates. Nice to see theyre a good company to move forward with as their rates are amazing.