Hard to say. Some banks are making loans, but they seem to be the smaller banks, like TD Banknorth, whereas Nantucket Bank, who is now owned by the Spanish monster Santander, is regretfully doing very little in the real estate market on Nantucket.
I do know that you have to be a strong borrower to get a loan or re-fi. Each bank/lender has their own criteria.
Step one is for the lender to pull your credit to see if they even want to talk with you. If the lender does want to continue talks, then the next steps are gathering your financials and getting the property appraised.
At these steps you need to make sure your property has the value to qualify for the loan, i.e. if you are going for an $800K loan and the maximum the lender will lend is 80% loan to value, you should make sure the property’s value is at least $1MM.
For the most part, the lenders are making the potential borrower pay for the appraisal(s). So, if you go for the $800K with a max. LTV at 80% and the appraiser comes back with a $900K value, you will probably not get the loan and be out $500 +/- plus a bunch of time and energy. If you get through the appraisal(s) and your financials look good, then you should be able to move to closing.
So, before you waste any time, money or energy to get a loan/re-fi, you should ask yourself:
1) Will the property appraise and
2) Do I have the three “C’s”-cash, credit and collateral for the lender to think I am a good risk?
It’s not easy, but if you can pull it off, you should be sitting pretty because these rates could be a once in a lifetime opportunity…