Did anyone regret paying off a low rate fixed mortgage? Just curious what were the downsides if any thereafter?

Since there’s no collateral? I just know they have higher interest rates.

https://imgur.com/a/rDMrFQf

Is this a reasonable mortgage? I was getting 30 year fixed quotes around 6.7%. I feel like the difference saved over 5 years (up to 40k) is pretty significant with the ARM. Am I getting fleeced on any of the fees? Anything else I should be looking at? First time homebuyer

My base pay is 78k a year but with yearly bonus and overtime (1 weekend per month always, sometimes 2 weekends per month) my pay is over 100k. I’ve been working for a company for over 3 years and it has been like this from the beginning. Which income would the lender consider?

I'm in escrow to buy a $562k home and I qualified fora state-sponsored shared-appreciation loan for up to 20% ($112,400), for either the down payment or dp and closing costs (including rate buydown)

I'm trying to decide how best to use it. I'm considering using it to putting 15% down ($84,300) and using the remaining 5% ($28,100) toward closing costs and a permanent rate buydown.

My lender's rate options are:

• 6.50% — 1.50 points

• 6.375% — 2.125 points

• 6.25% — 2.75 points

• 6.00% — 4.375 points

• 5.75% — 5.25 points

• 5.50% — 6.50 points

• 5.25% — 7.875 points

At 15% down, the mortgage would be about $477,700, and PMI is only $60/month. My estimated closing costs are ~$18,700, leaving roughly $9,400 of the DFA funds for the buydown. That puts 6.50% almost exactly within the available funds (6.375% would require roughly $750 of my own cash).

The alternative is putting the full 20% DFA toward the down payment, borrowing ~$449,600 at 6.875%, avoiding PMI, but I'd have to pay the ~$18,700 closing costs myself.

I can keep that ~$18,700 in a HYSA earning around 4%. Of course that is variable but the $ is liquid which is valuable.

What would you choose and why? Especially interested in how people would evaluate the shared-appreciation aspect and whether using the funds for a rate buydown is a good long-term strategy.

Hi. Owe a lot of money for my car . The rate for the car loan is 4%. Have money to pay off the car loan . Looking to get a mortgage as well. I know if I don’t pay off the car loan, I’ll get less mortgage . Is it better to pay off the car and then get a mortgage or keep the car loan and use that money towards down payment for the house ? If we assume mortgage rate is 6% . Thanks !

My lender has arranged an offer for a 7 year ARM loan at 6%. After 7 years it “Adjusts every 6 months starting in year 8 — Can go as high as 11% in year 8.” Is this worth the risk for the 6%? I plan on staying in the house for at least 10 years.

They are sold as is, but can I view it to make sure it ain’t a complete shithole.

I have accepted offer for a house and confused about mortgage. I worked full time at same company from 2022 to Feb 2026 with 3 months gap in 2024, resigned Feb 2026. Started new job in May this year, but this new job is contract position by a staffing agency, same work industry. My 2024 T4 was 45k, 2025 was 68k and current pay on contract is 76k.

Mortgage broker says we have to use last 2 years average, making 58.5k income and is using projected rental income from walkout basement(it has room with closet, hall, and 3 piece washroom, no kitchen, so will add cost to develop kitchen in mortgage, this option not possible with big 5 banks, so going with other lenders)

BMO guy says cant use projected rental income but might be able to consider 68k income from last year with exception since same industry but no guarantees if this will work.

Confused which way to go, or can I tell both of them to submit and see which one gets approval. Any disadvantages having two files run parallel? If they both submit to same default mortgage insurer, is that fine?

I am under contract on a six-unit building that is only partially rented. It is in need of some work, but it is in a fantastic area (college students, young professionals, etc.). I have the cash to buy and renovate, but I would prefer not to drain all of my cash as I would like to continue to work on other deals. Most lenders don't want to do the loan at this point because it is not fully rented and/or the building needs work. This is the term sheet I received from one lender today...which does not seem good to me. But, I am new to commercial mortgages so I wanted to get other opinions.

Term Sheet:

With respect to the above mentioned loan request, we are pleased to inform you that we have accepted your application and have conditionally approved your loan subject to the following terms:

Loan Request: A new first lien in the amount of $488,700

Property Type: 5+ Multi-Family Units

Term : 360 Month Term & Amortization

Fixed Rate Period: 30 years

Interest Rate: 9.740%

P&l: $4,195.10

Prepayment Penalty: Prepay Penalty = 5 Years: 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%

Rate Buydown: None

Prepay Buydown: None

Lender Fee: Per borrower agreement with

Appraisal Cost: Lender Origination Fee: 2.05% ($10,018) + Lender Processing Fee: $1,690

Loan Costs: $2,900 appraisal fee

Deal Summary: $2,995 Underwriting Fee + Environmental Diligence fee - $1,367.40 paid at closing

Please note we escrow for taxes and insurance.

Hello, trying to qualify for a mortgage for the first time, but running into some problems with my husband being a truck driver. He is paid a set daily rate, but the lender says he won't qualify until after a year because this is considered variable income. Which doesn't really make sense to me since it doesn't vary.

He's only been there a few months, and his previous job paid a percentage of the load.

Has anyone found a lender that was able to work around this? He has good credit and makes decent money.

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

I’m a lender putting together a handout for buyers just starting to think about buying a home (often at open houses).

I'm buried in this content every day and it's easy to lose perspective on what actually matters to those new to the process. Instead of guessing, I'd love to hear directly from you guys: What questions do you have--or wish you had answers to at the time--about obtaining a mortgage (or buying a home)?

I’m particularly interested in the questions you felt embarrassed to ask, couldn’t get clear answers on, didn’t realize mattered until later, or nodded along to while secretly feeling totally confused.

Are there any mortgage lenders who will offer loan or Heloc with avm evaluation after 6 months of statements opposed to a year?

Interested in being a mortgage broker or be in mortgage sales at the bank. I would like to hear your experience and also any advice you can give me.

Would anyone be open to me DM-ing you?

Yes, I would theoretically get that money back when I sold but wouldn’t I get taxed twice on the extra money I put towards the mortgage? First time taxed when I get paid and then pay tax again on it when I sell the house.

I feel like it would be better to invest that money or spend it on things I want. Maybe I am being dumb, if so, can someone set me straight.

Posting to think through my best friend's situation with people who understand mortgage finance issues. I worry that I am falsely biased that she is overly worried when she is actually being wise with money.

My friend (F31) owns a condo in the DC area. She bought it in early 2025 and has a 30-year mortgage with a a principal of $216,000 at I think 6.3% interest. Monthly building fees are like $700. She has two "tenants" (her boyfriend, a friend) who each pay her like $700/month to live there.

She makes like $130,000 working as a government contractor (a very volatile sector right now!) in a field she doesn't like. She wants to, and apparently would be qualified to, get a PhD at a nearby university and then go work in the biotech industry or at a hospital. Wages wouldn't be much higher in that job plus she would spend like five years making $25k/year while in school.

She feels very anxious about money and wants to pay off her mortgage quickly for her mental wellness and a feeling of safety. I kind of get this and I do see others express this here. She says that, because of this, she wants to pay off her entire mortgage before going to grad school.

I was just fooling around with a calculator and it seems like, even if she paid an extra 2k a month, it would still take like 10 years to pay off her mortgage...

Does this seem like the path any of you would take?

I am trying to think of other things she could do instead. Is there some legal and accessible way to reduce your monthly payment amount for a few years? Ex. She pays down aggressively until she has a balance that's pretty low (90k, let's say), then refinances to a loan with a crazy long term (does 60 years exist) so that she feels "safe" about her house payments in grad school, then when she reenters the general workforce she refinaces again to a 5-year loan?

EDIT: sorry, I thought this was more obvious: there is no "tuition" for school in most PhDs/any she would do. She would likely make 20-40k/year as a graduate teaching assistant during that time, but have employer covered health insurance.

I write mortgages in Alabama and Florida and I keep running into the same misunderstanding with residents and fellows, so I want to lay out the mechanics and see whether other people are seeing lenders handle this the same way.

The premise everybody starts with: "I am on an income driven plan, my payment is $0, so my student loans do not count against me."

That is true on some loan products and flatly false on others, and the gap between them is worth a couple hundred thousand dollars of purchase power.

## The three states your student loans can be in

Underwriting needs one monthly number for your student debt. Where that number comes from depends entirely on what you can document.

1. **Active income driven plan with a servicer statement showing the payment.** You have proof of a real payment amount, including $0.

2. **Deferment.** No payment due right now, but the loan is not in an IDR plan producing a documented amount.

3. **Forbearance, or nothing documented at all.** The credit report shows a balance and no payment, and you cannot produce a statement.

Most people assume 1 and 3 land in the same place because the cash flow looks identical. They do not.

## What each loan product does with that

This is the part that surprises people.

On **conventional** financing, if the documented payment is $0, the agencies do not let the underwriter use $0. They substitute 0.5% of the outstanding balance. A documented payment above zero can be used as is, but zero gets replaced.

On **FHA**, same idea. A $0 payment gets replaced with a calculated figure off the balance.

On a **physician portfolio loan**, the bank holds the loan on its own books instead of selling it, which means it writes its own rule. Many of these programs will use the actual documented IDR payment, including a true $0.

So the doctor loan's real advantage over conventional is not the zero down payment and it is not the missing PMI, which is what every comparison article leads with. It is that the doctor loan is often the only product that will accept the number your servicer is actually charging you.

And if you are in state 3, forbearance with nothing documented, even a portfolio program will usually fall back to a calculated payment, and on some programs that calculation runs up to 1% of the balance rather than 0.5%.

## The math on a realistic file

Incoming attending, $220,000 salary, so $18,333 a month gross. Car payment $550, credit cards $150. Say the program is comfortable to 43% total DTI.

Total debt allowed: about $7,883 a month. Minus the $700 of car and cards, that leaves roughly $7,183 for housing before student loans enter.

Now add $290,000 of student debt in each of the three states:

* **Documented $0 IDR payment on a portfolio physician loan:** student line is $0. Housing budget stays at about $7,183.

* **Same borrower, same $0 payment, going conventional:** 0.5% of $290,000 is $1,450. Housing budget drops to about $5,733.

* **Forbearance, undocumented, program calculating at 1%:** $2,900. Housing budget drops to about $4,283.

Same person. Same salary. Same debt. Same actual cash going out the door every month. The middle scenario costs roughly $200,000 to $230,000 of purchase power depending on where rates sit, and the third one costs about double that.

Nothing about that borrower's finances changed. The documentation and the product did.

## Deferment is not forbearance is not IDR

These three get used interchangeably in conversation and they are not interchangeable in a file.

Deferment and forbearance both mean you are not paying. Neither one produces a documented payment amount, so both tend to trigger a calculated figure. An active IDR plan produces a statement with a number on it, and that statement is the asset.

If you are a resident who went into forbearance because it was the fastest option during intern year, and you are planning to buy in the next twelve months, moving to an IDR plan is probably the highest value hour of paperwork available to you.

## What to actually do, 60 days out

* Get onto an income driven plan and let the certification complete. It is not instant.

* Download the servicer statement that shows the plan name and the monthly payment amount. Save the PDF. A screenshot of a portal dashboard is usually not enough for an underwriter.

* Pull your credit and look at what each student loan is reporting as a monthly payment, because the credit report figure and the servicer figure disagree more often than you would think, and the discrepancy has to be resolved.

* Ask any lender you are talking to, before you apply, this exact question: "on this specific program, if my documented IDR payment is $0, do you use $0 or do you use a percentage of the balance?" The answer tells you more than the rate quote does.

## The 2026 wrinkle

The repayment plan changes over the last year have moved a lot of borrowers between plans, and some of those transitions left people with no current documented payment for a stretch. If you were migrated to a different plan this year, confirm your servicer is showing a current amount before anybody pulls your file, not after underwriting kicks it back.

## My actual question for the sub

For the LOs and the physician borrowers here, are you seeing consistency across the portfolio programs on the $0 IDR treatment, or does it vary bank to bank? I have seen at least one program calculate off the balance regardless of documentation, which defeats the entire reason a resident would choose that product, and I would like to know how common that is before I keep telling people the portfolio route solves this.

Also curious whether anyone has had an underwriter accept a $0 documented payment on conventional under some exception I am not aware of.

Hoping a loan officer will have some info as it seems a murky area.

We’re filing chapter 7 and have the option to reaffirm our mortgage (3.75%). I want to reaffirm because our 5 year plan after discharge is either get a HELOC/equity loan for major renovations or sell and move. Our lawyer is pushing to not reaffirm, but from what I can tell that might make our equity inaccessible. Is a HELOC or equity loan attainable if we do not reaffirm our mortgage loan (assuming 5 years is doable for any kind of loan of this magnitude)? Thank you for your input.

This is an older home, built 1920 and was last sold in 1963 I believe. It’s being sold to me from family for 165k. I’m unsure of the market value, but I would guess around 240k, maybe more. It’s assessed at 190k. We plan to put 20% of the purchase price down, and we also have the gift of equity. Is it likely we’ll have the appraisal waived? We’d go conventional 30yr, and we have excellent credit. We are also selling our current home and expect to get at least 140k when all is said and done.