HEAVY LIFT // HOME LOANS
Last week: a 112-mile drive for a truck. This week: a 12-foot walk to the mailbox.
Last week, I got a letter marked FINAL NOTICE in red, with my loan number on it and an official-looking seal. If I didn’t know better, my stomach would have dropped.
That’s the point. These mailers are built to make you feel late, behind, or in trouble, so you call before you think. After 22 years on the inside of mortgage loans, I can tell you the scariest-looking envelope is usually the least important one in the pile.
Preflight 3-2-1
1. “Final notice” is a sales tactic, not a deadline. Your real lender doesn’t need red ink to reach you. The urgency is manufactured.
2. The lower payment usually comes from the clock, not the rate. Restart a 30-year loan you’re six years into and the payment drops, even if you’ll pay more in total over the life of the loan.
3. “Skip a payment” isn’t free. That interest doesn’t disappear. It gets folded into the new loan. This particular offer had a $36,000 price tag to refinance.
1. “Who are you, and are you my current lender?” Then check the company’s NMLS number at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. It takes 30 seconds.
2. “What’s the loan term, and what are the total closing costs?” Ask that before you ask about the rate.
Take the mailer, find your current lender’s number on your actual statement, and call them if you have questions. Never use the number on the mailer. Want fewer of these? You can opt out of prescreened credit offers at optoutprescreen.com.
CROSS-CHECKING YOUR INSTRUMENTS
Gut: Two weeks into the fiber climb? Hold steady if things are still settling. Climb, level off, climb.
Car: Thanks to everyone who wrote back about the 112-mile drive. Next car week: two deals, same playbook. And yes, the dog-stairs video is coming.
Take the Left Seat.
Jeff
Educational only. Views my own, not my employer’s. NMLS #32027.
Some credentials never expire.
