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I need to do a HARP refinance of the upside-down mortgage on my single family house. I plan to use Quicken Loans if it's a decent deal, since they seem easy to work with, and they work directly with my loan servicer, Green Tree.
Is there any significant difference in the HARP refinance rates between an "investment property" and "owner-occupied" property?
I'm asking because I'm kind of living there, kind of not. I've actually been staying with my dad in his house since he had surgery a while back, and I pretty much left my house to my roommate for the time being. I intend to move back eventually, but I don't know when. I've not changed the address on my driver's license, and I still receive most of my mail to my house, except for my cell phone bill. I honestly only drop by once or twice a month now, as my roommate is taking pretty good care of the place.
Because of this, it would be easiest to tell them I don't live there so that there's no appearance of fraud. However, I'm sure they'll want to call it an investment property. It isn't (it's the poorest "investment" I've ever made!), it was my primary residence, and most likely will be again one day.
I could just tell them I live there if it will save me a lot of money, but I don't want to do that if I don't have to.
What should I tell the Quicken Loans people? (And should I shop around? Is anybody else as easy to deal with as Quicken? I don't want a lot of stress just to save an insignificant amount of money.)
Yes, an investor rate is going to be significantly higher than an owner occupied rate. Having a sick parent doesn't make the house not your primary residence, so I don't see any fraud in it. You intend to live there, you're just in a situation where your parent needs some attention. I would go about as primary residence and not blink an eye. Don't ask them to send your disclosures to another address...
I messed up. I told them the deal, and the Quicken Loans guy asked if the roommate paid rent. I said yes, he rents a room. He said that since I'm collecting rent and not staying there, it would be fraudulent, so he quoted me the investment property rate and emailed me the paper work. Needless to say, I won't go through with that right now.
The problem now is better explaining myself so that he signs me up for an owner-occupied loan. I suppose I could sign a statement that it IS my primary residence. The utilities are all in my name, my drivers license says I live there, etc., etc...
I hope I'm not screwed just because my step-mom died, my dad got sick, and now my step-dad is sick (cancer, and now drug-induced psychosis thrown in as a side-effect of the cancer drugs!), so I'm probably going to stay over there a lot in the near future.
Crap! I feel like Jim Carey in Liar Liar right now, except that I'm putting family first, business second.
EDIT: I've been quoted 4.75%, 30-year fixed, on $139,900 with $4,000 closing costs rolled in (I don't have that kind of cash saved right now). That seems high. As far as I know, my credit scores are over 680--should be well into the 700's--so what should be a reasonable HARP rate?
Should I call them and ask for a new quote while explaining just how un-fraudulent I'm trying to be?
Or should I just call this off and start over next month as if nothing happened?
P.S. Buying this house in the first place was the biggest mistake of my life, but one day, if I keep paying, it WILL be worth more than I owe. I hate it, but I'm not going to commit fraud over it, so if it keeps it simple, I WILL just take the 4.75%. I don't want to though. I don't know what to do...
Last edited by Thegonagle; 06-10-2013 at 03:03 PM..
Approximate credit scores above, yes, it's a single family residence, and the current value is probably about $90,000-100,000. Balance owed is approximately $134,000.
There's no PMI. The current loan was from late 2006 and is fixed at 6.375% for 30 years, backed by Fannie/Freddie.
I had my 2012 w2 mailed to my dad's place, but I did an extension on filing, so I could just file under my home address. I have to get that finished up.
2011 and earlier is still filed at my own house.
Schedule E? I don't think so. I've not reported any real-estate losses.
EDIT: So maybe that's not a totally horrible rate? I heard they'd started going back up, so I figured the time to do this is now (or last month).
Seeing as how rates have skyrocketed in the past month, that is not a bad rate for being at 135% of the value of an investment property. Nor is it an egregious amount of costs. I normally don't feel good about Quicken, but if you can close on that, I'd jump on it.
We're doing a 3.75% HARP refi on an investment property right now. Supposedly the rate was 3.25% for owner occupied. 1/2% seems to be typical between owner occupied and investment property.
We're doing a 3.75% HARP refi on an investment property right now. Supposedly the rate was 3.25% for owner occupied. 1/2% seems to be typical between owner occupied and investment property.
Could you list the 24 other factors that determine a rate?
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Occupancy fraud
