Ask why, and the answer usually sounds something like this: "I'm not buying anything. It didn't seem like my place to ask."
That idea is common, and it's worth taking apart. It keeps a lot of homeowners quiet about one of the largest bills in their house, sometimes for years.
Why mortgage websites seem built for buyers
Spend a few minutes on almost any mortgage website and you can usually tell who it was made for. The buttons are big, and the words are about getting into a home and moving fast. The whole thing assumes you have an address picked out and a deadline coming.
If you already own your home, that can leave you with the sense that you walked into the wrong room. You have a question and no deadline, and nothing on the screen seems to be waiting for someone like you.
So people hold on to their questions. They tell themselves they'll ask when there's a reason, when they're actually about to do something. Then the something never quite arrives, and the question stays in a drawer next to the old closing documents.
What the BankPricer home page says
BankPricer is Jeff Shin's site, and Jeff is a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator. On the home page, he describes the work in the first person. He says he helps "homebuyers and homeowners" understand their options.
Homeowners are right there in that sentence, next to the buyers. A few lines later he describes his goal for people "purchasing, refinancing, or reviewing an offer," and the goal is the same for each of them: to help you understand the numbers and your next step.
Higher up on the page, one of the choices a visitor can pick reads "I'm thinking about refinancing." It's written for someone who is still turning the question over.
Questions that sit for years
Homeowners' questions tend to be quiet ones. They don't come with a deadline, so they get pushed to next month, and then to next year. A few kinds sit the longest. The people below are made up. The questions are ordinary.
A couple has been in their house long enough that the marks on the pantry door, where they measured the kids, go up past the top shelf. Every so often one of them wonders out loud whether refinancing even makes sense for them. Neither one knows what that question would involve, so it never gets past the kitchen.
A man opens his mortgage statement and sees that the monthly amount changed. A notice came in the same envelope. He reads it twice and puts it in a drawer, still unsure what it means.
A woman expects to sell someday, maybe when she retires and wants something smaller. She isn't sure what her mortgage has to do with that plan, or whether there's anything she ought to understand about it now instead of later.
And sometimes the household changes. A parent moves in, or a marriage ends. The house is the same, but the people in it aren't, and someone starts to wonder how the mortgage fits the new shape of things.
None of these people are buying a house. Each of them has a real question about the one they already live in.
The worry about getting pitched
There's another reason homeowners stay quiet, and it's a fair one. If I ask about refinancing, will someone hear "ready to sign" and start selling? If I mention I might sell someday, will I spend the next month fending off sales talk?
Plenty of people have asked one simple question somewhere and gotten a pitch back instead of an answer.
A question about refinancing isn't a request to refinance. A question about selling isn't a plan to sell. You're allowed to ask whether something makes sense for you and hear the answer without anyone deciding it for you.
The home page says Jeff reads what people send through the site himself, so a question you send can reach him just as you wrote it.
Owning a home is a reason to have questions
Somewhere along the way, a lot of people pick up the idea that questions belong at the beginning. You ask while you're buying, and once the papers are signed you're supposed to know everything.
Nobody holds anything else to that standard. People ask about an insurance policy they've had for a decade when something in their life changes. They ask about a retirement account they opened long ago and haven't looked at since. Having owned something a long time is usually why the questions show up.
A mortgage runs for a long time, and life keeps moving while it does. Jobs change and families grow or shrink, and the plan you had when you signed may not be the plan you have now. Questions years in are a sign you're keeping an eye on something big that you own.
You can start where you are
You don't need a plan to reach out, and you don't need to know whether you want to change anything at all. Saying where you are and what you've been wondering is enough to start.
Jeff can help you understand the numbers in front of you and what a next step might look like, if there is one. Sometimes there isn't, and knowing that is worth something too.
It's also fine if the question isn't fully formed. "I got this notice and I don't understand it" is a perfectly good opening.
Lines a homeowner could use
If a blank message box makes it hard to begin, a few lines might help. Borrow any of them and rework them in your own words.
"I'm not buying anything. I own my home, and there's a question I've had for a while."
"Someone asked whether we'd ever looked at refinancing, and I realized I don't know what that question would even mean for us."
"A notice came with my mortgage statement. I've read it twice and I'd like to understand what it says."
"We might sell someday. Is there anything about our mortgage we should understand before then?"
"Our household changed this year, and I'd like to know how the mortgage fits with that."
"I'm not ready to do anything. I want to understand what I already have."
There's no deadline in any of them, and nobody is apologizing for asking.
Nothing moves unless you move it
Asking leaves everything about your home exactly where it was. You can ask about refinancing and decide to leave things as they are. You can finally understand the notice and put it back in the drawer, knowing what it says this time. You can ask about selling and then stay put for a long while. You can come back later with a different question.
It's your house. Every choice about it is yours.
One thing to do
Think of the question you've carried the longest. Write it down in a sentence or two, and start by saying where you are, something like "I own my home and I'm not planning anything right now." When you're ready, send it through Get In Touch.
Jeff Shin, NMLS 1041652. Barrett Financial Group, L.L.C. Chicago. Company NMLS 181106. Equal Housing Lender. Not a commitment to lend.