In this day and age you probably already know what PMI is and you are probably paying it. It stands for "private mortgage insirance" and it is an extra payment that you pay to the bank to ensure that you won't default on the loan. Unless you put 20% down when you bought your house then you are paying it. I pay an extra $290 per month for mine and I am on a quest to get rid of it. Banks are notorious for trying every trick in the book to keep you paying that PMI. The first hurtle... the invisible PMI Office!!!
Try this: call your mortgage lender and ask to be transfered to the PMI Office. After the snarky rep stops laughing she'll tell you that they can only be contacted in writing. She'll give you the address but she'll swear that they don't have a phone. Of course the address is a PO Box number. Honestly, for all the money that you give them they ought to be required to have a phone!!!
In order to eliminate PMI you have to either have paid down the loan to 80% loan to value (LTV) or have the house appraised to see if it went up in value. Of course, they pick the appraisers. Isn't that special? Since my house is not quite at 80% then I'm going to look into getting an appraisal to have them raise the value. All that I want is a list of the appraisal companies that they use. I don't have high hopes in them giving me this information. What I expect them to say is that they will send me that list after I send them a check.
Another way to eliminate PMI is to refinance the loan. But since closing costs are in the thousands then I am going to try contacting them first. I'm at the point now where the reappraisal is cheaper than refinance. However, I will have to refinance anyway soon since I have a variable interest rate.
I'll keep you readers up to date as things happen and maybe this can help some of you too if you are trying to get rid of your PMI.
Thanks!!
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