Hear a fellow officer’s experience with his home refinance

Households that fail to refinance when interest rates drop may lose out on tens of thousands of dollars in savings over the life of the loan. We sat down with R.A., a law enforcement officer from Bergen County who recently refinanced his home. Hear his thoughts and gain some insight from his experience.

What was your reason for refinancing your home? With college tuition for two kids for the last couple of years, room and board costs and all the expenses that go along with it, our credit card bills just kept growing.
Had you thought about refinancing in the past but hadn’t done so? I honestly didn’t think we would be able to get enough money out of the house for it to make sense. I figured we would just keep paying it off the credit cards. Plus, I heard about the hassle of all the paperwork and the back and forth with mortgage people, I had enough stress already.
What was your reason for not moving forward then? A coworker told me how simple and easy Jeff and Debbie [from the Lending to Heroes team] made their refinance, plus my wife and I started having some serious fights over our finances as money got really tight.
Are you glad you decided to move forward? Very much so. First of all, by consolidating all our credit cards into our mortgage, we saved almost $1,200 a month. I had no idea that was even possible. It’s a game-changer for us as a family.
Do you wish you had refinanced sooner, having now been through the process and enjoying the benefits? I honestly wish I had done this a year ago. First of all, saving $1,200 monthly for the last year would have kept another $14,000 in our bank account. Plus, when I think back over the last year of arguments, stress over which bills to pay and which ones not to, saying “no” to the kids when they needed things because we just didn’t have the money…all of that could have been avoided.
Did you find the process easier, faster and/or smoother than anticipated? One reason I didn’t refinance sooner was because of horror stories I heard from people about all the paperwork, the back and forth, the dumb questions asking for things that were hard to get, the humiliation of explaining how we got into this kind of debt. I just didn’t want to deal with any of that, and all to save $200 a month. No, thanks. But Jeff and Debbie got our refinance done in like 26 days! And just like that, we were saving $1,200 a month — plus, we skipped a mortgage payment, which kept another few thousand in our bank account right before our summer trip to the shore. And the paperwork they needed was simple: a couple of paystubs, a W2, our homeowners insurance policy, all electronic. And boom, we were done.
How was your experience with Jeff and Debbie from the Lending to Heroes team? Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend anyone other than Debbie and Jeff for whatever mortgage needs you have. They made us feel like we were family. They kept things simple and really fast. I seriously wish we had called them a year ago.
Did you feel more comfortable working with the Lending to Heroes team because of their longstanding and strong support for uniformed officers as well as being a preferred lender of the PBA? There are a few mortgage companies that advertise in NJ Cops Magazine, and I figured they were all the same. A lot of my coworkers said they used Lending to Heroes, and now I understand why they have the most endorsements. Even Pat and Marc themselves recommend Jeff Rosen. They really do set themselves apart from everyone else. Everything they do is for law enforcement.
Is there anything else you would like to add? I would just recommend that you don’t wait. It takes a couple of minutes on the phone with them, and you’ll know if they can save you money, get you approved or whatever you need a mortgage for. And if they can do something for you, you’ll be surprised to see how easy and fast it is.