Dan McKenzie, Options Mortgage Services, Alpharetta

When you purchase a home with less than 20% down you most likely are paying Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI.
This is not to be confused with Home Owners Insurance.  Private Mortgage Insurance safeguards the lender and remains on the loan until the home’s Loan to Value is at 80% or less.

At the time of writing of this article, July 2018, home values have increased by over 50% in the last 5 years nationwide.
There is a very strong chance that if you have purchased your home in the last 5 years that the value of your home may have increased enough to terminate the PMI.
It is worth taking a look at it at; PMI on a $200,000 loan can be $100 to $150 per month.

So, if you are the proud payer of Private Mortgage Insurance or PMI, here are the steps you can take to see if you can get the lender to terminate the PMI:

Conventional Mortgage, FHA loans closed before April 1, 2013:

1. Check your Loan to value with the current market value of your home
   1. Look on realtor.com, Zillow.com, or Trulia.com to see what the estimated market value of your home may be.
   2. Look at your mortgage Statement and see what your current loan balance is
   3. Divide the mortgage balance by the estimated value of your home. If that number is .80 or 80% or less, you may be able to terminate your PMI.
2. If you are below 80% call your loan servicing company and tell them you want to look at terminating the PMI and ask them what steps you need to take.
   1. There will most likely be a fee of some kind to drop it(minimal compared to savings)
   2. They will probably ask you to pay for an appraisal
   3. Different loan servicers have different criteria, just ask them and be persistent.

FHA loans Closed after April 1, 2013:

1. Check your Loan to value with the current market value of your home
   1. Look on realtor.com, Zillow.com, or Trulia.com to see what the estimated market value of your home may be.
   2. Look at your mortgage Statement and see what your current loan balance is
   3. Divide the mortgage balance by the estimated value of your home. If that number is .80 or 80% or less, you may be able to terminate your PMI.
2. IF you are below 80%, Give me a call and lets run a refinance analysis and move you from an FHA loan to a Conventional loan with no PMI

Myself and my Team are at your service………..I always love helping my friends save money!