Monday, March 11, 2013

Mortgage Shenanigans.

Back in February, we refinanced our house. We were able to shave 2.25 percentage points from our APR, and went from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed, all while saving somewhere north of $100,000 in interest payments in the bargain, while paying off our house (if we stay there, of course) by the time we are in our mid-forties. Pretty sweet! But a funny anecdote, and some kind of commentary about the state of the modern mortgage market follows.

Our old mortgage was with Acme Mortgage Company (note, not the real name of the mortgage company), and we had been with them since we bought our house. Through a friend, it was recommended that we check out Mega-Lo Mortgage Company, they had great rates and low costs! So we did. Mega-Lo was pleasant to work with, responsive, and saved us a bunch of money. So we signed the paperwork with Mega-Lo Mortgage Company on February 15th.

But before we could even pay the first payment to Mega-Lo Mortgage Company, we get a letter in the mail. Thinking it was our first statement, we opened it as soon as we got it, only to find out that, in much less than a month, and before we could write a check for the first payment to Mega-Lo, they had sold our mortgage to another mortgage company.

And who did they sell our mortgage to? Back to Acme Mortgage, of course!