Less than a month before I met my delightful paramour last year, I closed on a piece of unimproved property in Charleston with the intent of putting a house on it within the next couple of years. My mortgage rate seemed high at 8.25%, but I was assured by TPTB that when I got my construction loan in 2007, I would fold them together and get a far better rate on a new mortgage.
Fast forward to now; I’ve left Charleston to be with this wonderful Doper in Georgia, and don’t expect to return to Charleston for at least a few years, maybe even 5. I won’t be building the house until then, either.
Now I have a heavy duty rate and will be paying on it for years more than I expected; can I refinance? Am I stuck? I’ve checked those mortgage calculators, but they’re all for **home ** loans, not property alone.
Any help, advice or funny remarks will be appreciated by those of you in the know!!
There shouldn’t be any reason you can’t refinance. The only catch is refinancing could cost you a few thousand dollars, but if you can get a much lower interest rate it should be more than worth it. Check with whatever bank you deal with both, I refinanced my home loan through Wachovia Bank.
Most of the calculators are for residential mortgages.
Vacant land loans are higher risk, and less investors will buy the, so they usually cost more. This place, for example, adds 1% to the 3/1 ARM rate for vacant land, and imposes a lot of conditions: Vacant Land Loans | Michigan Credit Union Land Loan Rates | MSGCU (it’s a credit union in Michigan, I’m just linking because they actually talk about their rates)
This place appears to do vacant land loans in your state: http://www.vmf.com/financial/land_finan.cfm
Yes, you can probably refinance. Will you get a better deal? That’s not clear.
Thank you for the link, Gfactor, it was really helpful! I hope I get some good info from them.
I hope to get a better deal, I’d hate to have to sell the land now and start all over again when we move to Charleston for good.
I talked with one of our pet mortgage lenders. According to him most buildable lot loans these days are 1-3 year ARMs @ approx 6-6.5%. The placement cost of getting a new lot loan with a different lender is likely to make any savings negligible if your term is less than 3 years or so. He said, assuming your credit is golden, your best bet would be to try and re-negotiate with your existing lender and knock a point or two off. There may still be some service fees involved in this process, although not as many as getting a entirely new loan with a different lender.
Wow, that was really cool of you to ask on my behalf! Yes, the mortgage I have now is an ARM and I’ve heard nothing but horror stories. Sadly the bank I have my mortgage through doesn’t have a branch within a hundred miles of here, which is ironic as I tripped over them at every turn when I lived in Michigan. 
I shall call them and inquire what they can do now that my circumstances have changed.