Refinance a land loan into a mortgage loan
"The Answer is yes according to multiple online sources and my local bank. This approach is a common technique to building your own home. You finance the land, build the simplest possible dwelling (say a garage with 1 bathroom/bedroom), refi into a mortgage and get cash back and then build your ""real house"" or add on, etc. This eliminates the banks demands that come with a ""construction loan"" and saves you 10s of thousands in the process (fees, contractors, scheduling, design, etc)"
"It can be a good thing for the bank to refinance your loan for you - since you will be keeping the loan at that particular institution.  This gives them more time to enjoy the free money you pay them in interest for the remaining life of the loan. Banks that offer ""No closing costs"" are betting that mortgage payers will move their mortgage to get the lower interest rates - and whomever holds the loan, gets the interest payments." Find today's latest refinance rates and new home loan rates and learn more from featured lenders. Our program is designed to assist future and current homeowners with the process of managing their credit and determining a house payment that is right for you. Therefore, if you are seeking for financial assistance in Delaware, you must seek the consultation of Highlands’s mortgage in order to get the best deal and that too at lower prices. what are my options for raising the funds? Assuming you have decent credit, you can either mortgage your home or apply for a land loan in order to purchase the land. Since both your home and the land have value, either one can act as collateral in case you default on your loan. Land loans tend to have a higher interest rate and down payment, however. This is because banks see land loans as a riskier investment since it's easier for you to walk away from an empty plot of land than your own home. "With permanent contract in Germany you shouldn't have any problem getting a loan. It's even more important than how much do you earn. Generally, you should ask for a house mortgage (Baufinanzierungsdarlehen) with annuity as a type of credit to save on interest. Besides, you usually get a better conditions with a saving bank (Sparkasse) or a popular bank (Volksbank) situated in the area where your house is situated. You also shouldn't combine your credit with extra products (the simpler is the product, the better is for you), maybe I'll write later an extra piece on the common pitfalls in this regard. Probably, you could find a bank that would give you such a loan, but it would be very expensive. You should save at least 40%, because then the bank can refinance your loan cheaply and in return offer you a low interest. Taxes depend heavily on the place where you buy a house. When you buy it, you pay a tax between 3.5% and 6% (look up here). Then you pay a property tax (Grundsteuer), it depends on community how much do you pay, the leverage is called Hebesatz (here's example). Notary would cost ca. 1.5% of the house price. All and all, you should calculate with 10% A country-independent advice: if you want to save on interest in the long run, you should take an annuity loan with the shortest maturity. Pay attention to effective interest rate. Now to Germany specifics. Don't forget to ask about ""Sondertilgung"" (extra amortization) - an option to amortize additionaly. Usually, banks offer 5% Sondertilgung p.a. The interest-rate is usually fixed for 8 years (however, ask about it), this period is called Zinsbindung. It sound ridiculous, but in southern lands (Bayern, Baden-Württemberg) you usually get better conditions as in Berlin or Bremen. The gap could be as big as 0.5% p.a. of effective interest rate! In Germany they often use so-called ""anfängliche Tilgung"" (initial rate of amortizazion) as a parameter." "This doesn't say the whole story (like the length of the HELOC). if you have 15 years left on a mortgage and ""refinance"" into a 30 year HELOC then yes, your payments maybe 20% lower, but you add 15 years to pay it off.  Just remember that interest occurs daily on what you owe. If you move 100K of debt from 5% mortgage to 6% HELOC you'll be paying more to the banks no matter how you slice it." Is that an FHA loan you have? And you're wanting to do one of those low cost FHA re-fi's, right? The answer is that in between when you first got that loan and now, the government's changed the rules on PMI for FHA loans. It more than doubled the amount of monthly PMI you have to pay.  The new rates, efective April 18th, 2011, as as follows: It used to be 0.50% per year for the 30 year. So that's why the PMI would go up.  There is another rule in play too, specific to that no-cost FHA refi -- the government requires that the combined (principal+interest+pmi) monthly payment after the refi is at least 4% lower than the current payment. Note that the no-cost refi does not require a new appraisal.  Some options present themselves, but only if you can show some equity in a appraisal: 1) if an appraisal shows at least 10% equity, you can go refi to a standard mortgage. You might even be able to find one that doesn't require PMI at that level. If you have 20% equity, you're golden -- no pmi. 2) See what the monthly payment will be if you refi to the 15 year FHA mortgage. Between the much lower PMI, and the much lower interest rates (15 year is usually about 0.75% less than a 30 year), it might not be much more than what you're paying now. And you'd save a huge amount of money over time, and get out from that PMI much earlier (it stops when your principal drops below 80% of the loan amount). This would require that reappraisal. Since making loans isn't 'casino banking', I'm going to start a small, regional lending institution that just lends money to people to buy homes.  I really want to open up home ownership to a larger group of people, maybe those who wouldn't qualify for traditional loans.  I'm just not sure whether to call it Washington Federal or Countrywide Financial. I just closed on a refi last week Thursday. The app went to the lender mid to late May. The lender called my employer for an employment verification on the Monday before closing. I would wait till after the loan funds to change jobs. FWIW, we signed on Thursday afternoon, escrow had to FedEx the originals to the lender on Friday, lender should have received it on Monday, we are still waiting to fund. I expect the loan to fund no later than tomorrow.