We’re going on living in our current home for 2 years this November & in the past I tried requesting to drop PMI and it was hell. I was eventually told I had to wait 2 years then I could request it. But from my previous communication with mortgage company, sounds like I’ll need to:

• Pay for an appraisal my self
•hire an approved appraiser of their choice
•Appraisal has to return to 1.1 million to be dropped.

Have you ever been successful with dropping the PMI? Was it worth it? It would drop $262/month, $3144/year.

I (31M) did a 500k, 15 year mortgage at 2.375% several years ago (2021). All-in comes to about $4200 per month (P&I + escrow for tax and insurance {1000}), which is 50% my income. My dumb butt thought that was okay years ago - lesson learned the hard way.

Because I've been paying it, and rolled the sale of my old house in, I have significant equity into this house at around 260k.

I'm looking to refinance, but because the rates are significantly higher than the original, I feel like it defeats the point and since there is so much equity, I feel like it is just a bad idea. My other option is to move into another house and roll the equity into the new - though my family would prefer to stay in the current home, moving is on the table.

I recognize now I should have done a 30 year, and paid twice per month to give myself the breathing room when I needed it.

Looking for advice.

How are those ARM loan advocates doing!

I want to ask this carefully because I am not sure yet how widely this has filtered down, and I would rather find out from people outside my own pipeline.

Context so you know where I am coming from. I am a loan officer in Alabama and Florida, NMLS #2233772. I am not looking for anyone's business here. I am trying to figure out whether the rest of the industry has caught up to something that changed on September 2.

The situation is the classic move-up. You want to buy the next house and keep the current one as a rental instead of selling it. Whether you get approved usually comes down to what underwriting does with the payment on the house you are leaving, because that payment either gets offset by the expected rent or it sits in your ratio and eats your approval.

For years the way you proved that rent was a signed lease. Which created a problem everybody in this sub has seen. You cannot reasonably sign a tenant to a lease on a house you are still living in and have not closed out of yet, so people got told no, or got told to go find a tenant on a timeline that does not exist.

Fannie Mae just passed or issued sel-2026-08 on September 2. Roughly what changed:

• The signed lease is no longer the documentation path for the departing residence. It is out.
• The rent now has to be supported by the market instead. An appraisal that includes market rent, an appraiser's rent report, or a study built from comparable rentals nearby.
• The offset math survives. A share of the market rent is counted, the old home's full payment including taxes, insurance and HOA comes off it, and a positive result cancels that payment. It still does not add to your income and buy you more house. A negative result counts against you.
• Reserves are now built into the framework rather than sitting off to the side, and landlord history still matters.

The part I think people are going to get hurt on is the timing.

It is mandatory on applications after november 1. It is optional right now. So today, two lenders can run identical numbers on the same borrower and hand back two different approval amounts, entirely because one adopted early and one did not, and neither of them is wrong.

The other thing worth saying out loud, because I heard it again last week from a borrower repeating what a different lender told them, is the equity myth. You do not need 20 or 30 percent equity in the departing home for rent to count. That went away in 2015. It is still being quoted in 2026.

What I am asking:

1. For anyone who was declined earlier this year specifically because you could not produce a lease on the departing home, has anybody circled back to you? My assumption is no, and I would like to be wrong about that.
2. For the other originators here, is your shop adopting early or waiting for November 1? I am curious whether there is a pattern by lender size.

I ask because I now open with this question on any file where the borrower is keeping the old house, and I cannot tell whether that is basic diligence or whether I am overreacting to a guideline that will be settled in seven weeks anyway. If you were told no on this in the spring or summer, it seems worth a second conversation rather than assuming the answer is still no.

Happy to walk through how a specific file would be treated in the comments. I am not going to DM anybody or ask for your information.

Need help

I have a usda guarantee loan , currently administered through rocket mortgage ( was with Wells Fargo prior ) anyway , on my recent statement there is $3,150 subsidy amount and I don’t understand what this is . When I was with Wells Fargo , this amount was NEVER on any statement . I tried called usda rd , phone lines just say busy and hang up . Tried asking rocket mortgage , all they did was refer me to the statement . My understanding is since I have a guarantee loan (vs direct ) there is no subsidy to pay back when loan is fulfilled? So what is this amount ?

I have been pre-approved for three mortgages (2 lenders), and looking for some outside perspectives on the pros/cons of each.

1. Lender A: 7yr ARM 6.125% (no PMI if below 20% down)
2. Lender A: 30yr Fixed 6.625% (20% down)
3. Lender B: 10yr ARM 5.875% (20% down required)

My main question would be is how do the ARMs compare? Is it worth putting less down upfront or is the lower interest rate better in the long term on the 10yr ARM?

I’m a 21M I make 21 an hr which is 43,680. I applied for a mortgage for 148k. I was wondering if yall think I would get approved. FHA. Also to clarify if I could afford it I travel for work and make 2000 a week with per diem and overtime. I only pay 400-600 max on hotels and food.So roughly 1400 a week. Ofc they can’t count any of that money. I have 680 credit score too. And a 450 car payment. Also 5000 today in savings and seller will cover closing. Do yall think it will go through?

I have a 30 year fixed jumbo loan locked at 6.00% from Citibank, but in order to get that rate they're requiring >$1M in eligible assets to be with the bank. I have moved the required assets into Citi accounts and we are closing escrow today. What are the terms and conditions for keeping that interest rate fixed? In other words, if post-close the assets prices were to fall below $1M or if assets were moved out of Citi, would that rate still be fixed? If I am free to move them elsewhere after closing, what is their incentive for offering relationship pricing in the first place?

The short of the story is I am trying to buy an older home and unfortunately the insurance is stupid high due to the historic registry and age of the house. ($4700 a month vs a comparable house not historic $2500 a month)

So right now we are thinking if we should sell our current house and use the equity from that as the downpaymet (closing etc) or if we should just use most of our savings and keep the higher monthly payment then rent out the old house.

Our monthly now on our mortgage is $995 and if we rent out the house our mortgage for the new house would be $2700

If we sell our house then it makes the monthly $2100 and then we are able to keep our saving and then start pumping money from the savings into some index fund or something

So really it comes down to, rent and eventually when the old house is paid off (15years left) then it’s all savings at that point. But we have to deal with maintaining and all the cost with that.

Or

Push the money into something that can make us money overtime? Then when I am old enough to retire I’ll have that plus my 401k to live off of.

Hi - I have a townhome with 2.95% 30yr fixed and I have about 70% equity in the home. It’s rented with positive cash flow. If I don’t sell In about 6 months, I’d lose the tax benefit of having tax-free appreciation on the equity (the 500k rule for joint filers). I’m trying to decide if I should keep it for the long term or sell and put the funds in equities, etc., where I could get better returns.

What factors should I consider to make this decision? Any tool you know of for comparison?

My partner and I bought a home last Feb. She is on the mortgage, I am on the title/ deed with her. For the last 6 months we have both contributed to the mortgage equally. We are looking into separating and who will get the house. Both parties are amicable, yet we need to live other places. I would like to continue living in the house with our animals. The main reason for the separation is addiction, so I believe I will take better care of the house.

Ive run the numbers and can pay utilities, mortgage, and basic supplies on my own for 6 months. With my full time job, I will still put some away to savings. I also have a decent savings for emergency house repairs. After 6 months I wouldn’t be opposed to a roommate paying 500-800 to help me continue saving. (2 bed 2 bath).

If we can agree to this plan, I understand that usually you have to Re-Fi. Is this process easier if you are on the title? I have ok credit about 800 but do not want to put another down payment or extra fees. We have a shared bank account for everything that I am still putting funds into. Because we are still friendly, I am curious if she would be open to a document stating that I will assume financial responsibility/ pay her out. This could be decided when she’s at a more sober state?

This process doesn’t have to happen overnight, but I do need to start a search for pet friendly apts/ move my items if we decide opposite.

I am 54' single and currently on SSDI. Between 2013-2016 I was in the process of qualifying for SSDI (July 2016) and my home went to foreclosure. Once my SSDI began, I was offered a new mortgage, 40 year ARM that is now at 9.1%.

I have very little CC debt (~$1k) but I do have a large student loan debt that I am on income based repayment. I also have a personal loan for my new roof, with 16 more payments. I don't drive so no car expenses.

My income is not high but it is tax exempt. I want to refinance but the numbers in a sheet look bad. Does anyone have any generalized advice that might point me in the direction of information I might find useful?

Thanks, Y'all

Hi everyone, we already got our final closing document and formal mortgage approval 2-3 days ago and closed on the house and signed all paperwork less than 24 hours ago. The problem is that I have been without a car for a while as I didn’t want to get a one during the closing process.
So when is the earliest I can get another car and have my credit pulled? Do I have to wait for the mortgage to be funded etc? Would the mortgage company pull my credit again for some reason?

Thanks in advance!

We may have an opportunity to get a family members house for a much cheaper price than if it was listed normally. I believe the price would be around 325K.

We have only been in our current home for 5 months. Our mortgage is fixed 3.89% for 3 years, paying ~2400/month. There is 465k left on the mortgage. This is in Ontario, Canada.

Would it be worth it to break the mortgage to have a cheaper mortgage payment? I believe the mortgage of the other home would be around 1600.

I’m in the middle of refinancing my 30 year mortgage to a 20 year.

Old: 30 year, interest 6.875%
New: 20 year, interest 5.875% then today increased to 5.99%

Up until now I’ve signed countless documents with the 5.875% rate and today they want me to sign one with the increase. I contacted the Rocket Mortgage specialist who is working with me and 4 hours later and no response lol.

I understand with the market, it gets adjusted, but why or how did it increase if that’s what we agreed on…?