If you’ve ever wondered how to refinance your home or when to refinance mortgages as a retiree, a cash-out refinance from Quontic could help lower your interest rate, cut monthly payments, and tap into your home’s equity.
Refinancing a home is the route many folks take when they’ve worked a lifetime towards retirement and are ready to live a little—they want to tap into their home equity to ease the transition. These days, more and more retirees are using their homes as a financial tool. For seniors looking to supplement their income, replenish their liquidity and/or pay off higher cost debt, we’ve got two great mortgage refi options at Quontic.
In this blog, we’ll focus on the first option: a cash-out refinance.
This is simply a new mortgage which pays off your existing mortgage and provides some additional cash to you at closing. This gives the applicant the ability to take advantage of the equity that has developed in their home.
You might be asking yourself questions like:
- Is this right for me?
- Can I afford this new monthly payment?
- Am I willing to go back into a new 30-year obligation?
- Will the benefit outweigh the obligation?
Well, a great place to start is to look at what’s happening in the economy. With some of the lowest rates in decades, retirees can use this opportunity to consolidate their mortgage and other debts into a single lower monthly payment. You can improve your quality of life by taking that cash for home improvement or even just to strengthen your cash reserve.
There are some drawbacks, however, especially for folks who are in the midst of retirement. One is the concern over fixed income. Many retirees have paid off their homes over a lifetime, so adding a new mortgage and prolonging the mortgage payment can feel overwhelming. Income levels, which normally increase over the average person’s working lifetime, don’t necessarily follow those that are on a fixed income. So, if an applicant that is in retirement uses a cash-out refinance to pay off all their debt and then reestablishes new debt on those same credit cards, it could leave them with double the liability. There is a bit of discipline needed in a retiree utilizing a cash-out refinance. You can’t go back to your old habits without additional income to support it.
The operative question here is whether you feel that you have sufficient income/cash-flow to be able to make the payment on the mortgage over the long term. If you’re paying off other high cost debt (like credit cards) and lowering your mortgage rate, the new payment might still be lower than the sum of all of your existing debt payments. A mortgage professional can help you do the math and determine if this makes sense for you.
Let’s face it—sometimes we plan for retirement and our savings just don’t meet the mark. So being able to tap into the equity of your home at today’s lower rates may be exactly what your plan calls for.
We often think about what we’ll leave behind, but if you can enjoy investing or reinvesting some of the home equity wealth you’ve accumulated for your children, by way of helping them or financing their education, taking advantage of today’s low interest rates helps accomplish that.
If you’re interested in utilizing Quontic’s cash-out refinance program, please reach out to our refinance experts, complete an inquiry or application, and we’ll be in touch with you the very same day to talk with you about your options.
Want to know more about your other options when it comes to financing your home as a retiree? We talk through another innovative lending product that Quontic offers in Part 2, How to Refinance Your Home If You’re a Retiree: Reverse Mortgages.
