I have the official deets finally. I feel better having the paper in my hands, rather then just being verbally told. It's 3.75% for 3 years, amortized over 35 years. We would do accelerated biweekly payments so that would bring it down to amortized over 29 years.

If we do this we will still be left with about 8 200 in debt...which if we apply what we are saving by refinancing (about 420/month) we could be rid of the 8 200 in 19 months (? I hope my mathing is correct on this one?--maybe even shorter because we would still be making our regular monthly payments--so maybe even 9.5 months?)

We would also have to pay lawyer fees again, which I'm estimating on the high end to be about 2K. That would take away from repayments as well.

My concern surrounding all this is that we are not fully paying off all the debt. Initially when I was going through all the numbers in my head I was not factoring in that there is no such thing as Zero Down Financing anymore. That's where I went wrong in my initial figuring.

The commitment says we can do:

1. pay up to 20% of the original mortgage amount each anniversary year, without a penalty. minimum 1K.
2. increase regular payments by up to 20% of the original P and I portion per year, without penalty
3. partial prepayment options used in any combination may not exceed the 20% yearly prepayment maximum.

which all seem pretty standard?

I keep saying over and over again in my head..."If we do this we NEVER acquire any new debt and we make extra payments against the mortgage"