PMI question
 

Mortgage with Citizens.. Seven months ago,I put down 10%. Now looking to get rid of PMI. Have realized some appreciation. Will I need to come up with the additional 10%. OR will I definitely need a new appraisal to show appreciation. Hoping they will work with me. Any advice before I call them this week. Thanks

Best advice is to just call them. You will get a bunch of answers on this forum, some right, some not so much. And I'm willing to bet the policy is different from bank to bank.

The bank won't take your word for it that your property has appreciated in value. You will need to get appraisals and submit the request to the bank. There will be cost involved. Hard to say what you're paying monthly in PMI but you may have costs $400+ and unless you've got a million dollar home, that's probably 3-6 months of PMI payments.

If you can pay the loan down to 80% that's the easiest way to eliminate PMI.

Yes. Just call them and ask your questions. Coming on an internet forum with such questions may not take you in the right direction.

Call the bank.

Yes i will call, just looking for experiences of others. Did they require appraisal? Does anyone have a decent appraiser they recommend. My post stated I am going to call but it is always good to do due diligence first. No need to respond if u have nothing to ad

Hi Chuck, you're fairly new around here. Folks will not only reply with nothing to add, but they can often be quite "snarky" about it. You take the bad with the good.

Anyway, PMI. If your loan is not paid down to 80% of the original value, then you will absolutely need an appraisal. The bank will not take your word for it. The system is geared to wring every last dollar possible out of your wallet. Here's a decent article.
Good luck.

Final answer - call the bank for exact details.

Can I Cancel PMI If My Home Value Increases, or Am I Stuck With It?

We sold our old house and used some of the profits to reduce our mortgage with Citizen's to below 80% of the loan. We did a mortgage modification, which costs $200 but reduced our mortgage by about $200/month. Took about 5 minutes!

I would expect that the bank will hire its own appraiser, and pass on the cost of the appraisal to you.

Of course and that is why I suggested to the OP he call his bank.

Don't forget, there's no reason not to shop around for a new loan, there are plenty of credit unions in Florida that while you may or may not save on the PMI how about you may be nicely surprised that their interest rate is lower

New bank appraisal is required or come up with the additional 10%

Your appreciation doesn’t matter. It would be nice if it worked that way but it doesn’t. You have to pay down 20% of the original loan value before you can get rid of PMI. It’s been that way forever.

Is Citizen’s the servicer of the loan? It doesn’t matter who originated the loan, the servicer handles these requests. Loans are typically sold to FNMA or FHLMC and the servicer follows their guidelines on removing PMI. In most cases a new appraisal is required.

Call your loan servicer. Tell them you want to drop PMI. They’ll tell you you’ll have to pay for an appraisal. If that appraisal shoots your value up to where you have 20% equity, they’ll take care of you and slow you to drop the PMI.