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BUYER'S GUIDE

Commercial Mortgage Refinance Costs And Considerations

When you refinance a mortgage, you are typically paying off your original loan and initiating an entirely new loan. This means that you will pay the same initial costs that you paid when you financed the original loan. There are several typical costs involved in refinancing as well as a few things you should strongly considered before making the decision.

A home is for the average person the single most valuable investment they will make in their lives. For commercial property investors the price tag can rise significantly and often far surpasses the investment involved in a personal residence. Unlike a personal home, however, the goal of a commercial property is to make money so the extra investment should be expected.

When refinancing a commercial mortgage, you will have to pay closing costs and other fees, just as you did when taking out your original loan. They typically average somewhere in the neighborhood of 3% and 6% of the total loan. These fees can also be much higher than your original fee, particularly if the property value has risen and you are refinancing for the full appraisal value. Your lender may also require that your purchase points, which can add to your initial monetary investment. Purchasing points means you are essentially purchasing a discounted interest rate. One point can buy a discount of approximately 1/4 to 1/8 of a percent off of your interest rate. Over time, each point your purchase up front can save you a significant amount of money.

In addition to the initial closing costs and other fees involved with refinancing your commercial mortgage, there are some things you should seriously consider before going down this road. First of all, if your loan is for the full value of your property, you will have lost all equity that you had built up in the property. This means that you are back to square one financially and your risks have significantly increased. It also means that your property is no longer a safety net for you and you need to seriously consider other means of saving money for a rainy day.

The second thing to consider is that there are actually times when it is a wise idea to refinance. If your original loan terms carried a higher interest rate than you can get by refinancing or your grace period for an adjustable rate mortgage is almost over it is probably a wise idea to refinance and take the one time hit of extra closing costs rather than the long term hit of oppressive interest rates. The total cost of your mortgage is always the most important consideration. There have been times when wise investors actually saved money over the life of their loans by refinancing the payoff amount of their original loan at a significantly lower interest rate.

Another time when it may be wise to refinance your commercial mortgage is when you are reinvesting the money into your business or property in order to maximize your profit. Whether you are looking at making improvements to the property that would allow you to charge higher rent or increase productivity, these circumstances can indeed pay for themselves quite quickly and are worth the risk if you reinvest the increased profit margin into paying off your loan. Most loans will allow you to make a small extra payment each month that will greatly reduce the amount of money you will pay over the life of your loan. Even paying an extra $20 each month can have a profound impact on the total amount of money you pay over the life of your loan.

When making the decision of whether or not to refinance your commercial mortgage it is important that you keep the big picture in mind. Don't take the act of refinancing a commercial mortgage lightly. If you aren't refinancing under the best of circumstances you may find that you have done more harm than good in the process.


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