My wife and I are looking to Refinance and our old lender couldn't get it done.  Anyone else want to give it a shot?

1st $248,000

HELOC 2nd $14,000

Appraisal just came in at $320,000 but I HATE the comps and was shorted a full bath I put in my basement.  I only really need a few thousand more on the appraisal to get it to 80% but I was told no way.

Fico scores of 720 and 740.

Income over $100,000

Sallie Mae debt of $9,000 and Chase car loan of $11,000.

I know my complaints are falling on deaf ears, but we've basically done everything "right" and we can't get refinanced.  Sucks!

My guess is that you are trying to get refinanced and not pay mortgage insurance (given the comment about 80% loan to value).  From the sounds of it, you should have no problem getting a loan, but you are going to have issues with keeping your loan under 80% LTV to avoid paying PMI. 

In order to avoid PMI, you could geta 1st mortgage at 80% LTV and tack on a small HELOC for the additional funds that you need.  Hint: to help your credit, get the largest HELOC you qualify for and only take out the money you need to take care of the shortfall.

The bathroom in the basement was probably noted, but becasue it is considered below grade, it is not given the same value as a bath on the floors above.  Don't try to push the appraisal, you may end up getting denied because the lender has to approve the value.  Let the professionals in this industry do their job. 

Click on the directory tab above, select Mortgage, and you will get a list of local brokers.  I am sure they would be able to help you out.

Have you considered paying down the loan to 80%? That would only be about $6,000 to bring it down to $256K, which is 80% of $320K.  You'll avoid the MI, everything else should go smooth and you'll never have to worry about it again.

Just an idea.  Sounds like your income could support such a principal reduction.

Good luck!

JB

I agree with Justin in that bringing cash to close is an option, but I would guess the amount would be closer to $10-12k once you add in closing costs.