In general the only requirement to be able to refinance your home is to actually own one. There may be some situations in which you will find it to be a challenge, for instance if you are in the middle of a bankruptcy, however even then you will probably be able to find a lender to work with you. Lenders love to refinance mortgages since it is pretty much the safest loan they will be able to make. As a result there are lots of options available if you do decide that you want to refinance.
It is important to keep in mind however that just because you can refinance a mortgage doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. There are really only specific reasons that you would want to refinance. The first of these would be if you could get a lower interest rates. This may be because rates have declined since you took the first mortgage. A more likely situation is that your credit has improved and you are able to get a better rate. If you can get a lower interest rate it is usually a good idea to refinance but you do have to make sure that the amount you save in interest is enough to offset the costs of refinancing.
Another reason that it might be a good idea to refinance your mortgage is if it can reduce the time that it will take you to pay it off. If you are earning more money than when you first took out the mortgage you may find that you are now able to afford higher monthly payments. If this is the case it would be a good idea to refinance to get a shorter mortgage. The faster that you can get it paid off the less you will pay in interest.
In some cases you may find that you need to refinance in order to reduce your monthly payments. If you are having trouble making your payments you can extend your mortgage so that you pay less each month. You do have to be careful about this approach however as it will cost you more in total. However if you are having trouble making the payments you may not have any options.
A lot of people who refinance do so in order to turn the equity in their homes into cash. There are times when this might be a good idea, it is the lowest cost loan that you are ever going to get after all. If you are using the money for something like paying off your credit cards or improving your home this may be a good idea. If you are planning to use the money for something frivolous you may want to think twice, you are putting your home on the line after all.
