We refinanced thru quicken last summer, it was very easy, I guess we had our ducks in a row so to speak.
We are not upside down but we basically have no equity at this point. We had a mortgage with almost an 8% interest rate! It was killing us! The bank also did not hold our escrow which made it tougher. We didnt have bad credit back then either we just had no idea and everyone told us this type of mortgage was better.
I called quicken and with our 'excellent credit' we refinance to 4.5% the process was pretty painless. And our mortgage payments dropped from over 2200K a month to just shy of 1K, but now they are holding our escrow which still brings us up to 1500 lol. Because of the pricing drop our house dropped value and we had to refinance something like 96% of the value which means you have to get that special insurance, so we have to pay an additional $180 a month towards it. I cant think of the name. But in the end its still worth it! Then a month later they sold our mortgage to Bank of America. Hate those guys. lol. BTW we do send more per month since we were paying over 2K, it only makes sense.
In December they called us to let us know that we qualify for a lower rate. They have this program that lets us refinance for FREE for the life of the loan if the rates dropped and we were part of that. I thought 4.5% was pretty freaking good, but we said OK, they gave us 4% our payment drops $100, ok not bad. At closing they wanted the equivalent to the mortgage payment and money to 'start' our escrow account again. So it was a little sticky but we got it and Bank of America refunded the escrow account in two weeks so it was ok.
We had a good experience with quicken but they did make me crazy with this form and that form and faxing statements and this and that! It was like never ending faxathon!
Just remember a lot of reviews are posted by those with negative experiences. Unfortunately most people remember the bad and not the good. My first official 'review' of a restaurant was negative because it was so bad I wanted to tell the world! I also make a point to post good reviews, with the internet thats what most people search for, the bad things.
Its also tougher to get loans these days - a few years ago I worked for a mortgage company and when inspectors came to 'inspect' they didnt even walk in the house, they just looked at the house and say ok its worth XX and leave! Today they spend over an hour at the house and check everything! Things have changed so much they want to know everything!
We are just numbers to the bank not people. Dont take it personally. My brother walked away from his condo and his credit is totally wiped out, he had a hard time getting an apartment so for a while he lived with friends. Or on the ship (hes in the navy) he said its horrible.
hang in there!