Swept Up in a Flood of Refinancings; With Mortgage Rates Near 25-Year Lows, Lenders See Business Surge
Corrections: The mortgage brokerage operated by Carrie and John Staples was incorrectly identified in a Feb. 14 article on refinancing in the Real Estate section. (Published 02/28/98)</br></br>The recent crush of homeowners wanting to refinance their mortgages has left Carrie and John Staples, a husband-and-wife mortgage brokerage team, practically imprisoned in their Great Falls home-based office.</br></br>Ever since interest rates began dipping last month to their lowest levels in a quarter century, the Stapleses have had to start working at 5 a.m. -- sometimes 4 a.m. when they're really behind -- and not stopping until 6 p.m. when hunger sets in.</br></br>"It's pretty ridiculous," said Carrie Staples, 53, between copying loan documents and returning a borrower's telephone call as a fax machine spewed out the latest interest rates offered by lenders.</br></br>"I'm going from person to person. We're backed up on phone calls and we're trying to catch up all the time," said John Staples, 53, still wearing the sweat pants he slept in the night before. "It's getting pretty rough."