Hi,

I'm wondering if y'all can clarify...

Should i get an appraisal done to see if i can get PMI knocked off? Is it true i can get refunded unused premiums? We bought in 2021, if the property is worth 5% more i think we'd be covered. Appraiser recommendation?

https://www.tdi.texas.gov/commercial/pcpmi.html

I would not do anything without speaking to the servicer. Did you pay the mortgage insurance upfront? If not you're paying it each month so there's nothing refundable.

Seems like this can be easy and cheap or hard and expensive depending on lots of things.

For me it was easy. Called my mortgage company (servicer I guess) and asked when I thought we had enough equity. They said to I had to send a hand written letter (weird) and then either get a BPO (broker price opinion) for 75 bucks or a true appraisal for 750 bucks. I sent the letter and went with the 75 dollar option.

Week or two later, BPO guy called, came buy and took some pictures. Said "you're good" and maybe a week later I got a letter saying pmi was removed.

Have definitely seen others on here have more difficulty.

Removing PMI was super easy for me. We did it in conjunction with a refi. Perfect timing.

Mine was the same as absolute. BPO was super easy, wish I had done it a year or two earlier.

On my first mortgage, I called my mortgage company and asked and they just took it off. Nothing more was needed. Just call and see what they require.

Thanks for the info, everyone. I reached out to my lender.

My first home had PMI. I called the lender to remove PMI exactly when I got to 80% LTV ratio. I was told I had to pay for their appraiser to come out and evaluate if the property was worth what I thought it was worth. My other option was to wait until we were 78% LTV ratio and they would be forced to remove it without the appraisal happening. The cost of the PMI I'd pay between that point and reaching 78% was less than the appraisal was going to cost, so I just waited until I hit 78%.

The pessimist in me also figured that I'd get screwed by the appraisal since I was required to use their appraiser instead of an independent third party.

I called my servicer yesterday and requested PMI be removed. They put in an internal request for review. If approved, PMI will be removed. We'll see if it's truly that simple in the end

I doubt they have appraisers so it would have likely have been a disinterested 3rd party.