Chris Jones's Q&A

Depends a lot on your loan amount and what your lender will charge you.  It could be a good idea, and it could be really stupid.  Depends.Get a pro to do an analysis for you.  There are lots of us here.

I can think of several reasons, but they all come down to this:if you were remodeling your bathroom, would you always take the lowest bid?This is a lot more important decision than that.

HVCC, no.  Most of the HVCC language, yes.  That is true.  Mortgagee letters 09-28 to 09-30 outline new appraisal independence language, and it's the same as HVCC in all material respects.

There shouldn't be any difference in rate from 95% to 90% at an 800 score.

Yep.  I think we'll have par below 5% tomorrow morning.

Hard to say, but I am personally not quoting the same rate today that I was on the 27th of July.  I'm about .25% lower, though it depends on the program.  Remember the rate lock is an odd duck in and of itself; the Zillow MortgagesUnzipped blog has a post on this subject you might want to read: http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/2009/08/06/but-my-rate-was-locked-wasnt-it/

Not even close to enough information to answer this question, but basically, if your income is good enough, and your credit is good enough, you can likely pull it off. I wouldn't count on being able to roll a lot of your debt into it, but you probably could make the refi happen as a rate/term.

There is a fee. Some will not require you to pay it, but there is absolutely a fee.  Make sure you can get the report itself before you pay anyone, though.And incidentally, getting the free one online will do you absolutely no good as far as knowing whether you qualify for a mortgage.  The scores you get from your lender will be different - lower, almost always - than the scores they give you at the online free services.

Because handling the property values of several million properties is an inexact science, and computer programs have inevitable bugs.Or perhaps you're being persecuted.  One or the other.

If you signed your first mortgage documents without the intent to live in the property as your primary residence, then you've already committed fraud.  If you didn't, then you haven't.  Most lenders' closing documents have some period specified, usually a year, but that's "intent", and there's no fraud if you intended to live there and circumstances have changed.The real-world answer is that if you keep making the payments, it is unlikely that anyone will care.  But that's not what you asked.