That rule is a marketing oversimplification. Sometimes a 0.5% drop saves you a fortune (especially if you’re also dropping FHA mortgage insurance). Sometimes a 1.5% drop is a bad deal (especially if it resets you to a fresh 30-year term). The math has to be done with your actual numbers, not a rule of thumb.

Yes — but not by paying down your FHA loan. FHA MIP on a 30-year loan stays for the life of the loan no matter how much equity you build (if your initial down payment was 10% or higher, FHA mortgage insurance stays on for 11 years). The way to remove it is to refinance into a conventional loan, which usually requires at least 20% equity and a credit score of 620+. If you’ve been in your home for 4+ years and Central Florida home values have gone up the way they have, there’s a strong chance you qualify. This is one of the most common reasons clients come to me — and one of the most common wins.

Mechanically, yes. Whether it’s the right move depends on three things: (1) how much equity you have, (2) whether the rate math works after closing costs, and (3) whether you’re going to put the cards back into debt after you pay them off. That last one is the deal-breaker that nobody talks about. If you trade unsecured debt for debt secured by your home and then run your cards back up, you’ve made your situation worse, not better. We’ll talk about all of this on the call.

A cash-out refinance replaces your entire mortgage with a new (bigger) one and gives you the difference in cash. A HELOC is a separate line of credit on top of your existing mortgage — you draw from it as needed, and you keep your original mortgage untouched. HELOCs often have lower closing costs, and are great when you don’t know exactly how much you need (renovations, college tuition over years). Cash-out refis are better when you need a lump sum to cover high-interest credit card debt. There’s no universal “better” — there’s only what fits your situation.

Slightly and temporarily. The hard credit pull from each lender drops your score 5-10 points for a few months. If you’re shopping around with multiple lenders, the credit bureaus treat all mortgage inquiries within a 14-day window as a single inquiry — so shop fast, don’t drag it out for months. Your score recovers fully within 6-12 months as you make on-time payments on the new loan.

A typical refinance can take up to 30 days. The timeline depends on appraisal scheduling, how quickly you can produce documents (W-2s, paystubs, bank statements, current mortgage statement), and how busy the appraiser pool is in your area. I’ll tell you upfront what your specific timeline looks like.

You can’t lose your home from a refinance itself — but you can absolutely end up with more total interest paid and less equity than you started with if you’re not careful. The most common mistake: refinancing 8 years into a 30-year loan into a fresh 30-year loan. Even with a lower rate, you’ve added 8 years of interest. The fix is to refinance into a shorter term (22, 20, 15) instead of restarting the clock. Most ads don’t show you that option — but you can ask for it.

It depends. If you bought during the 2020-2022 sub-3% era, almost certainly no — refinancing into today’s 6-7% rates would only make sense in extreme situations (major hardship, debt rescue scenarios). If you bought in 2023-2024 at 7%+ rates, current rates may already give you a meaningful drop. The “should I” answer depends entirely on your starting point. Knowing your goal would give a better answer about what makes sense.

There’s no such thing. The cost is either rolled into your new loan balance (you pay over 30 years), built into a higher interest rate (you pay over 30 years in a different way), or excludes prepaid items like escrow that you’ll still owe at closing. None of these are scams — they’re legitimate trade-offs — but these ads are misleading and not transparent about the costs you will pay.