Mortgage Refinance

June marks year 5 since we gazelles bought our house. The mortgage is held by the previous owners, and the terms of the deal included a 5 year prepayment penalty. With the 5 year mark approaching, and rates being quite low, I began researching our options on a refinance. We are not looking to lower our payment, only to lower our interest and possibly shorten our term. Then the thought occurs to me: why refinance with a bank if the previous owners would agree to a change of terms? So I wrote and mailed them a letter on April 1. Soon after they received it they called and said they would be glad to drop the interest rate by 1.5%! After speaking with the title company that handled the paperwork for the original sale, I found out it's as simple as writing the new terms on the back of the original note (or on an attachment) and both parties signing and dating it. NO MONEY OUT OF POCKET. This is what I call a sweet deal. So when we get this deal wrapped up this is what we're looking at:

1. Cutting the length of the loan down to 20 years instead of the remaining 25
2. Lowering the interest by 1.5%
3. Bonus: the payment amount drops by a few bucks

Hopefully everything works out and soon. What a nice gift as we welcome Huey to our home of 5 years!

The goal now is to have no mortgage before I'm 40. That gives me 11.5 years...