Frustrated with Refi

[georgeharrison]

We started the refi process with a mortgage broker in April. We are doing Harp 2.0 and I guess not many lenders are participating so those that are are super swamped. We have done three rate lock extensions, they have pulled our credit twice, and have asked for updated paystubs twice. I'm super frustrated! Plus, if James's work trial goes well and they offer him the position permanently - which I think they will, he will get a truck allowance and will need to buy a new vehicle. His allowance will cover the entire payment and the insurance on it, but it will go on our credit and if they pull it again, I'm afraid a giant car loan will reflect negatively on our credit worthiness. We both have great credit scores, but since I don't work, our debt to income ratio after we get a truck loan will make me nervous.

Anyone else had refinanced lately and had it take forever? Encourage me.

BTW, my broker has been awesome and also thinks it's ridiculous that it's taking the lender so long, but there's not much she can do besides harass them - which she has done for me.

[sarack]

i have no help but sending good vibes to you. be patient.

[Deleted]

No help, but lots of good luck vibes coming your way!

[darby]

Lurker here with a long reply. We're doing Harp 2 also & even though the process seems long to me, we have been having a really good experience going through it & our lender has been wonderful at making us feel at ease & answering all of our questions. However, we are staying with our existing lender so I'm not sure if we're in the same situation. Our lender actually called us to offer it. They said that we were already prequalified due to them being able to determine that we met all of the Harp 2 requirements & that there was no risk or worry of non-qualification or bank denial. He said delays in closing are due to it being a government program & since so many people are taking advantage of the program the government is taking longer than normal for their end of the processing (60-90 days). We were originally told we should close by the end of August, but then last week told it would most likely be around the 2nd week of September. We only had to lock once & were reassured last week our lock was still valid. We went from a rate of 5.65% & are going to 2.95% (I think....). We did have to sign a ton of papers & one of the papers we signed said we would not aquire any additional debt during the loan process (it may have said we would notify them if we did & our lender said it's best not to, I can't quite remember how it was worded). So I guess the only advice I have is to be patient & try not to worry about it. I hope the rest of your loan process goes as smoothly as ours seems to be going. Good luck!

[jennlin]

we did a refi recently...didn't do harp (don't know what that is, so likely did not)...it *did* take a long time..after we submitted all our paperwork, it still took 3 weeks, and then after we signed, it took about a month to go into affect....so, no, not nearly as long as you..but it did take longer than it should.

good luck, and i hope it goes through soon!

[hazel]

Hang in there! Ours took about 7 months for various reasons. It was super frustrating and we laughed every time we had to submit new bank statements or explain a "large" deposit on such and such date. Um, how about that being our paychecks! It seemed really silly after a while! The good news is that because it took so long our interest rate kept being lowered. That made the wait worth it!