So, we finally decided to start the process of refinancing our home.

I thought we’d try our current mortgage company first. First off, let me say that I’ve had three years of bad customer service from this company. I should have known better than to try to talk to them, but I thought, after reading the comments on JD Roth’s post at Get Rich Slowly, that maybe, just maybe, they’d do a rate adjustment rather than force us to do a total re-fi.

I spent 87 minutes on HOLD, while listening to messages from my current mortgage company telling me how valuable my time was. I hung up and called another mortgage company we’d used with our previous home.

I got through right away, walked through a couple of scenarios as to closing costs, etc, and made an appointment to lock-in for the next day. We were able to lock at 4.875 percent. It’s a significant difference (about $200 a month) from our current 6.25 percent rate.

After we signed the paper work, I stopped to think about how little homework I did about this process. I only did a very casual search on the internet to look at rates, to see that the rate we got was one of the lower ones for our credit rating. I only did a little research on closing costs, including the Complete Guide to Refinancing from ABC News.

I was so excited about saving $200 a month, that I did not negotiate prices like I should have. I know that I could have saved more. I also could have waited and watched rates go up.

I think we made the best decision for us based on the information we had at the time. Now we are awaiting an appraisal. This is critical for us. We currently have to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance) because we didn’t have the 20 percent down payment when we built the house three years ago. The appraisal, if high enough, could get us out of those costs, so we’re hoping the numbers are good. We are realistic, though. We know the housing market in our area has suffered a bit, although not as much as the national market has.

Have any of you gone through a re-fi? Have you decided to do a re-fi recently? How is the process going for you? Please share your re-fi story.