Finance Roll

The decision to refinance your home should be based on whether you will be in a better financial position because of the refinance than before it. This is not always straight forward to work out. If, for example, you can roll the debt from a high interest credit card into the new refinance, you may be paying more on your mortgage than before the refinance. However, this will be off set by the savings you make on having paid off the high interest credit card. A refinance loan is like any other loan, or even your first mortgage, in terms of the documents you will need for the application to run smoothly and be successful. This article will discuss the documents necessary to refinance.

The aim of the documents you provide for a home refinance application are to prove your current financial situation and the relevant information about your existing mortgage.

Thus you will have to provide your credit history and credit score. You will not have to physically provide these reports, as the lender or broker will request the reports from the major credit reporting companies. They will probably add the associated costs to the fees or closing costs of the refinance.

You will also have to show your pay slips and bank statements for the past couple of months. You will have to give details of your employment and have to provide your last tax return.

In terms of the existing mortgage, you will have to get a current appraisal of your home. This will establish the current value of the property (the cost of the appraisal will be added to the processing fees).

You will also have to provide the current amount that is outstanding on the existing mortgage. You will have to provide the current interest rate and the terms and conditions of the mortgage.

All these documents are to establish that you can afford the refinance based on your current financial situation. They are needed by the lender to assess your case in terms of risk. It covers the lending institution (and you) should the circumstances change in the economy. These are the documents that have to be provided for a standard refinance product, however there are other products that do not require this type of scrutiny but you often have to pay for this with higher interest rates or stricter terms and conditions.