What steps can be taken if the mortgage is now Freddie Mac?  Cenlar services the loan but doesn’t do refinancing.  I tried Quicken Loans but they wanted me to come out of my pocket for a lot of money.  I have 800+ credit, working, and just want a lower payment.  The market did depress the overall value of my home, but because I put a down payment on the house when I bought it, I am actually just ‘above water’ so to speak.  Any suggestions??

Good question, the Harp 2 Refinance Program allows folks who are underwater on their mortgages or not even underwater to refinance with the possibility of not even needing an appraisal. One of the unique requirements of Freddie Mac owned loans is that they have a $5000 limit between the new loan amount and the current principal balance on the loan being refinanced.

When you do the refinance loan, the new lender with will order a payoff of your current mortgage. The payoff, majority of the time is typically computed by adding a mortgage payment to the principal balance for estimation purposes, making payoff a few thousand dollars above the current principal balance. When you factor in the amount of money you’re borrowing on the new loan there also has to funds for setting up for a new impound/escrow account (Several months of future property taxes in mortgage interest as well as fire insurance) which is requirement of this type of refinance.

This impound account could be anywhere from $1200 to as much as $3000 plus there’s closing costs that come into the picture as well, assuming that you want to refinance without any cash to close.

What you can expect on Freddie Mac Harp 2 Refinance Loans

Close the loan at the end of the month, by doing so, you can bring in the next month’s mortgage payment which is really amount of impound monies that cannot be financed  your in loan amount due to the  Freddie Mac $5000 limit. This is the best of both worlds here is why:

*The cash to close is not more than your mortgage payment in most cases so there are no disturbances to your cash flow.

*You can meet a $5000 limit and not have to worry about the loan not going through due to this unique component Freddie Mac own loans.

If you would like to get a mortgage refinance rate quote on the Harp Refinance whether your loan is owned by Freddie Mac or by Fannie May, we can help you, and if we can’t more than likely we can point you in the right direction.