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To: David R. Doerr who wrote (87)	5/10/1998 9:47:00 AM
From: Henry Volquardsen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3536

FWIW David I just refinanced my mortgage with a 1 year ARM. Whether this is the right decision for you depends on your personal situation and the costs involved. As an example I live in Connecticut and my refinancing costs are low and I can refinance easily. A friend of mine who lives in NY has to pay a mortgage tax and other costs that make it unattractive to refinance frequently. My strategy is that I refinance every year with a 1 year ARM regardless of what I believe the near term outlook for rates. By staying on the front of the yield curve I get the advantage of the lower short term rates. By refinancing every year I pick up the teaser rate the mortgage companies show. For the last few years this has given me a rate in the upper half of the 5s as opposed to longer term rates. This strategy is not without risk. If we get into a period of rapidly rising rates this could become expensive. But it has been my feeling for sometime that interest rates will remain relatively stable within a broad trading range. If the Fed were to tighten I believe it would be no more than 50 basis points. This would still allow me to refinance in the low 6s. If the Fed were to tighten more than that I would be capped on for the first year in the 7s and such a rate rise would slow the economy significantly lowering rates in the following years. So as long as the global economy shows little signs of developing entrenched inflation, this strategy holds the prospects of bringing a low financing cost. But remember there are some important caveats to this strategy. The tax and cost structure where I live makes refinancing relatively cheap. I can afford to be wrong for a year and take a longer term outlook on costs. If a rise in mortgage rates would have a significant impact on a persons finances they should stick with the safety of longer term rates. Henry

To: David R. Doerr who wrote (87)	5/10/1998 3:26:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Respond to of 3536

Home Mortgages I recently refinanced through ( more or less) the Internet. It required very little effort on my part and I was satisfied with the entire experience. The rates are among the lowest. Everything was done over the phone and mail until the closing. They arranged for an appraisal at my convenience. They also arranged signing papers at my convenience. (Saturday morning at my own home, It took about an hour). Rates are published online and updated daily. I used Ditech ( They only offer fixed rate loans.) ditechfunding.com Also check out American Finance for low rates loanshop.com Try this site to find additional lenders interest.com Zeuspaul