u/Actual-Fee1586

Last August, we purchased our house in Florida with a 30-year fixed rate VA loan of $800,000 at 6.5%. Our current servicer is offering a 30-year fixed rate IRRRL refinance at 5.49% with 0.078 points.

The estimated costs of the new loan are as follows:

• Points: $628
• Origination fee: $1768
• Flood Certification: $6
• Insurance Replacement Value Fee $30
• Title - Lender's Endorsements $296
• Title - Lender's Title Insurance $2,455
• Title - Settlement Fee $500
• Title - Title Search Abstract $180
• Recording Fees and Other Taxes $182
• Transfer Taxes $4,428

The total of these fees is $10,503. There is also the homeowners insurance and property taxes in escrow, but that should just move from the current escrow account.

The required monthly payment would go down by $491. Alternatively, if we continued to pay our current amount, the loan would be paid off after 24 years. We plan to be in this home for decades.

I have three questions:

1. Is there a way to reduce the cost of a new title insurance policy or get some credit back for the old one? I'm resigned to the fact that I would have to pay for a new one. But given that the current policy is only 8 months old, this sucks.

2. Do we really need to pay a transfer tax to the State of Florida? When I look at the state's website for documentary stamp taxes, it seems to only apply when transferring the property to someone else.

3. In general, is the new rate of 5.49% with almost zero points good for May 2026?

We just returned from two cruises in Africa. About half the time, we took excursions offered by the cruise ship. The other half we did private excursions or simply walked into town from the dock.

The cruise ship excursions were always crowded or rushed. For example, in a small Moroccan town, the guide rushed us through "the walls and souks" (description of the excursion) to get us to an oil shop instead of actually showing us the town. In Senegal and Ghana, the guides jammed 300+ of us into historically-significant slave trade facilities. In every excursion, we have to load and unload 30-40 people onto busses, often two or three or more times. In Maputo, we had a downtown walking excursion that included three blind people with only one escort and no canes. Maputo is not a safe place to walk without sight. The sidewalks are broken or nonexistent and the drivers are wild. The guide eventually doubled up as an escort, but the tour moved at a snails pace and we missed several points of interest.

There were two couples on the cruise that took taxis or private excursions to these places, and were able to divert away from the crowds and spend more time engaging with the sites and people. By being able to zig with the cruise ship excursions zagged, they often had the facilities to themselves.

We got back and I promptly cancelled upcoming cruise ship excursions in Tallinn (will rent a car instead), Gdansk (take the train), Lisbon (take an Uber), Bruges (take the train), and Guernsey (will walk). I have thus far kept included excursions from Viking in Iceland but those will be a game-time decision.

Also, I don't at all worry about not being back to the ship on time.