Refinancing can save you thousands, especially if you have several years left on your mortgage. However, you can also choose to refinance simply to tap into your home's equity or reduce your monthly payments.

"How much will it cost?" is a common question for homeowners considering refinancing their mortgage. While costs vary between lenders and loan amounts, the following will give you some guidelines to help you compare financing companies and their offers.

New Home Loan Fees

When you refinance, you are getting a new loan and paying for all those fees again. Fees, including application fee, appraisal fee, survey costs, attorney review fee, title search, and home inspection, will usually add up to around $1000 and $2000. That is in addition to the loan origination fee, usually 1%, and any additional points.

Some lenders offer zero point loans and low refinancing costs but with higher interest rates. These types of financing packages make sense if you are concerned about initial costs and are willing to spend more over the course of your loan.

Loan Points

Each point equals 1% of the loan, which is due at the loan's signing. So a point on a $100,000 loan would be $1,000. Besides the loan's origination fee of 1% or more, you can also purchase lower interest rates with points. If you plan to stay in your home for over seven years, then you can probably save money with lower interest payments.

Locate Lower Costs

You can also sometimes locate a lower cost for your mortgage by comparing companies. The easiest way to do this is to request quotes online to compare interest rates and fees.

You can also sometimes negotiate a lower interest rate or closing cost with your original mortgage company. It helps if you can tell them that you have found a better offer with another lender. But sometimes other lenders will have the better deal.

Different Loan Terms

A shorter loan term or a fixed rate mortgage can also save on long term interest costs. By picking a 15 year term loan, you can nearly cut your interest costs in half. You can also protect yourself from rising interest rates with an adjustable rate mortgage by converting to a fixed rate mortgage.

About the author:

See my recommended Home Mortgage Refinance Lenders for the lowest rates online. Carrie Reeder is the owner of ABC Loan Guide, which offers help finding low rate home mortgage loans.