This was the 4th or 5th refi Brett Burns and Directors Mortgage have facilitated for us. All of them have been very satisfactory because our goals were met and our costs contained. We refinanced our home in Enumclaw, WA several times and this is the second refi for our home in La Quinta, CA.Since I retired 12 years ago we have been living on a fixed income and have had to be careful with money. During my decades of working and supporting a family my wife stayed home to raise the kids, a commitment we both shared, but this meant a limited amount of money was available for family expenses.So we had to prioritize and agreed that a quality home in a good school district was #1, and right after that, saving for college. And we saved for retirement through my company's 401K, our 3rd priority. To "get ahead" we chose to be mobile in order to get the experience needed for good opportunities in other cities, so we never built enough equity or had the longevity in any location to be able to pay off our mortgage. These decisions and conditions led to us finding that Interest-Only (I/O) Adjustable Rate Mortgages kept our payments down to a level we could afford.Which brings the story to the present day - the Federal powers that be set a new minimum dollar level, $648,000, for jumbo loans. I/O loans could only be had at this level, but to qualify a borrower had to either have substantial income or significant assets. As it turns out, my wife inherited her mother's valuable property and was able to sell it about the time interest rates began to rise.Right after the close of escrow we gifted our kids and grandkids generously for education and financial independence but almost messed up the refi calculations because we diminished the cash balance that the underwriters check before OK-ing a new loan. Fortunately, a Directors Mortgage star, Karen Calenberg, took the challenge of convincing the loaning bank underwriter that we were solid and could be trusted with a big mortgage. Our refi would not have happened without her personal commitment to success for her grateful client. She did it!
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G. M.
