Fill out this form to get started with your Home Mortgage Refinance
Work out your break-even before you apply for refinance in Florida
A refinance is worth doing when you keep the loan long enough to recover what it costs to get. That is one calculation, and it takes a minute.
Divide your total closing costs by the monthly saving. If the refinance costs $4,800 and drops your payment by $180, you break even at roughly 27 months. Stay in the home past that point and you are ahead. Sell or refinance again before it, and you paid for a lower rate you never collected on.
Therefore the first question is not what rate you can get. It is how long you intend to keep the house. Anyone quoting you a rate without asking that has skipped the important part.
Which refinance you are asking for
- Rate and term: change the rate or the length, with no cash taken out. This is the standard route.
- Cash out: borrow against your equity and take the difference. Rates run higher, and lenders usually want you to keep 20% equity behind.
- FHA streamline: for existing FHA borrowers. No appraisal, minimal paperwork, though it keeps FHA mortgage insurance.
- VA IRRRL: the VA equivalent, for existing VA loans.
The Florida question worth asking first
If you hold an FHA loan and Florida values have moved since you bought, check your equity before you streamline. At 20% equity you can usually refinance into a conventional loan and drop mortgage insurance entirely, which often saves more than the rate cut does. A streamline keeps that insurance for the life of the loan, so the faster option is not always the cheaper one.
What to have ready
- Your current mortgage statement, showing the balance and rate
- Two recent pay stubs and two years of W-2 forms, or tax returns if self-employed
- Two months of asset statements
- Your current homeowners and flood insurance declarations
- A rough idea of your home’s value, though the appraisal sets the official figure
Since insurance premiums feed the ratios a lender uses, bring the current declarations page rather than last year’s. In Florida that number has moved for most owners, and it affects what you qualify for.
Read the full refinancing guide if you want the longer version before you apply.
Let us personally help you get the best mortgage rates
Get in touch with us: