r/HELOC

i 29m am seeking some advice on what i should do - i’m looking into a heloc for debt consolidation + a new roof. i’m making 85k before taxes, 13k on credit, and estimated about 15k for a full tear off and plywood. (no quotes yet)

i’ve worked my debt down from 17k but the roof cannot wait any longer. i feel trapped, don’t want to sell but i have about 180k in total equity, not enough in liquid to cover a roof or debt payoff outright.

appreciate any guidance, im on a path of financial literacy after never having any my entire life.

I have a paid off house and I’d like to open a HELOC against it for about 30% of it’s value, or about $250,000.

It will be paid back in 6 months. I’m in Missouri. How do I find this?

Just need some advice, I’ve been living in my house since 2017, bought my house at around $125k and its currently estimated value (according to Zillow) is $207k. I live in South Texas, and currently the house could use some upgrades and renovations. I would need a new roof, siding and windows. Would HELOC be a good route for me? My interest rate on the house is 3.5%, and I currently still owe roughly 86k still.

Has anyone gone through this process and how long did it take to be finalized? Thanks

I'm in the process of taking a HELOC to replace my roof with a company called New American Funding…. Does anyone have experience with this company?

40m + 40f, 2 younger kids. We are fairly regimented and live comfortably. I audit our spend quarterly in order to reign in lifestyle creep. I didn't come from money, quite the opposite, and the thought of this project is making me ill in spite of being in a good spot financially. I've become used to having a large safety net and am nervous to dip into it as I always prepare for the worst. My idea of hell is committing to this, building starts, and one of us loses a job while the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Comfort goes bye bye...

Classic case of buying the "worst" house on the block and planning to bring it up to snuff after the kids / pets beat it to hell in their formative years. Our project was just quoted at 900k to add 1800 sq ft and renovate the rest of the house - which it absolutely needs. Half functioning bathrooms, heinous tiles, and ancient floors that dip 1.5 inches randomly...it has character in spades.

We do not want to trade a 2.85% mortgage and do not want to move.

I do not want to sell 900k of stock at once.

Thus...this plan to fund half and borrow half. Now to the details:

Home Stats:

Home purchased 2021 for 950k

200k down, 30 year @ 2.85%

~670k remaining

Current Value: ~1.675m

Assets:

1.15m Brokerage (Long Term Capital Gains)

300k Brokerage (Short Term Capital Gains - become LTG in April 2027)

650k 401k (Combined)

50k 529 x2

Income:

450k combined

~45k bonus combined

830ish credit score for each of us

Questions:

1. Is this an optimal plan?
2. Where should I be looking for NJ HELOCs?
3. Should we consider new CCs? We use Amex Plat and United Club Chase and pay off monthly.

Thank you all for your feedback.

We're planning a kitchen renovation and adding a deck, combined it's looking to come in at $55k. I have about $200k in equity in my home (bought in 2019, value has gone up significantly), good credit score around 760, and stable household income. I've never taken out a HELOC before and want to make sure I'm asking the right questions.

I've started the process of looking into a few lenders but not tied to anything. If anyone has any recommendations I am all ears. But more importantly, the main things I'm trying to figure out is if there is anything specific I should read carefully in the fine print? Is there any benefit to variable rates instead of a fixed rate? Could it go even lower?

hello everyone,

recently inherited home, and it needs extensive work. new roof/windows and deck. I don’t want a huge HELOC line, but enough to do repairs now and future things. so far, ive done 2 windows on my own, new bathroom and flooring in bathroom/kitchen and laundry room. on the exterior the home doesn’t look the best. my question is, would this cause appraisal to be much lower? i need the heloc to properly fix and update the home. never done anything like this before. anyone have any tips?

I'll have problems with the IRS or Government if i withdrawal over 10k multiple times? I'm doing one home and paying in cash some crews.

Hi all!

My wife and I are set to build an addition in NJ. Here’s our basic details:

Income 375k combined
Debt $345k for single family house; mortgage is 2.85%/3300 month; available equity likely over 500k
No other debt whatsoever including cc, college loans, or car loans.
More than 6months of savings in bank
Excellent credit - 830 for me (took a dip this month when I put 25k on cc for Italian citizenship fees, but promptly paid back); 800 for wife

Project will be about 350k in cost.

Anything else you’d need to know to give a semi-accurate idea? Thank you!

Update: we talked to someone in the loans department who said Equifax reported a delinquency on another loan we have, and that we need to dispute with Equifax. However, we called Equifax and they could see no such delinquency and said they don’t send anything to the bank.

I’m looking for help with a Fifth Third HELOC we opened last year. In January we received a letter stating that the account was frozen for review. No reason was stated for the review and we’ve received no new information after eight months of waiting. We opened the account to build an addition and we have not used any of the credit so far as we were saving it until we knew how much our addition would cost. Has anyone had this happen? How did you navigate it to a conclusion? Who do we need to contact? Neither customer service, nor a personal banker could tell us anything.

I get why people do it. Credit card interest can be brutal, and moving a balance to a much lower rate heloc can make the monthly payment feel a lot more manageable.

But you're also moving unsecured debt onto your house.

And I think that's the part people underestimate. The bigger concern is what happens after the cards are paid off.

If the lower payment makes the debt feel less urgent, you stretch out the payoff for years, then slowly run the credit cards back up... you've potentially turned one debt problem into two while using your home equity to do it.

I'm not saying using a heloc to pay off credit cards is always a bad move. If the interest savings are substantial and there's a real plan to aggressively pay down the balance, it can make a lot of sense.

For anyone who's actually done this, did it help you get out of debt or did you end up running the cards back up?

Hey, I took a heloc on my condo 10 years ago when I had it out right for 47K, now 10 years later I got like $6K left and that ok. A few days later ago I called the bank just to check the temperature and I was told that my ending balance as of today is not the final amount, the payoff amount. The payoff amount is actually $3,500K higher than the balance on the loan. Is that normal ?? I was told on Friday the bank in the last 10 years ordered 3 appraisals without my knowledge, nobody hasn't been inside to take a look or anything but somehow the appraisals were submitted and bank paid for them. I just want to know if that normal or the bank is running on the low some corporate espionage !!! P.S. Thanks ahead for any help and advice !!

Hi! I’ve spent a lot of time looking into HELOCs and HELOANs. I often see the pros of helocs being listed as you only pay interest on what you take out and it can be tapped into multiple times. The HELOANs on the other hand have the fixed rate so you don’t need to worry about the rate changing but you get all the money up front and that’s it.

Are there any other benefits to HELOCs? Like maybe the variable interest rate could work in your favor and it could lower as opposed to go up?

I’ve got an upcoming home improvement project and I really only want to do a heloc or a heloan to cover it and only it. My primary interest is lowest monthly payment and getting it paid off ASAP. So with that being the case most of the traditional heloc benefits dont seem that applicable to me since I’d be maxing it out almost immediately and then just paying off ASAP. Having said that, does anyone have any insight as to what they think is better when comparing heloc vs heloan for this situation?

We are slowly out growing our house and want to do an addition.

We had solar installed a year ago and have a loan with a balance.

We were looking in to getting a HELOC or Home Equity Loan and were told they would subtract the solar loan amount from the loan because of the lien. Technically the lean is only on the solar panels and NOT the house ( UCC-1 lien) like the older loans did.

I’m just wondering if anyone else has been told this or have experience with it. I trust my loan officer but admittedly they don’t have much experience with solar which is understandable. So I thought I’d post here and see what others say.

Thank you!

We need brick tuckpointing, foundation tuckpointing, shingle and flat roof replacement, cornice repair, hot water heater, etc. Only have a couple estimates on a couple of these things so far. I'm thinking $60-80k needed. We have good credit and maybe $280k equity on home. Not a fan of variable rates in general, but we have investments to back us up in an emergency. Is a HELOC a good route to take? Or is there a better option?

I'm weighing my options between a traditional home equity loan and a home equity investment through Point. I know typically the traditional HEL is better and I have great credit but in my particular situation I am uncertain the best option. I'll layout the relevant financial details first then explain the situation.

Home value: approx. $320,000

Mortgage: $170,000 left with 26 years remaining at about 5.25% ($1680/mo with escrow)

Personal loan: $23,000 ($590/mo)

HEL details: $75,000 > $71,000 after closing and fees. $680/mo for 20 years at 9.1% ($23,000 goes to wipe out personal loan leaving me with $48,000 for work on the house. This would cost about $88,000 in interest over the 20 year loan. (I realize these terms are not phenomenal for a 730+ but the loan to value and the term played a large role)

I haven't totally run the HEI stuff yet only used the quick estimator on the Point site so I don't have exact numbers. The cash out amount would be approximately $63,000 leaving me $40,000 to work on the house. I would pay off the personal loan and apply the $600/mo savings to my existing mortgage. The calculated net savings on my 30 year mortgage would be approximately $82,000 and be paid off 14 years earlier. If I wait 4 years to start the extra $600 when the personal loan would be paid off the net savings would be $59,000 so the total savings here is $23,000.

As you can see there is about $111,000 swing in the HEI's favor based on the Interest I would have paid for the HEL and the interest on the original mortgage I would have paid otherwise. Also having no required payment is a huge buffer in the event that you lose a job or something. The ability to not pay that extra $680 in a pinch could prove extremely useful in a bad situation.

The one down side is that I plan to do substantial upgrades with this money and I do them myself so the return on investment is high. I live in a very nice small village, my property was in rough shape when I got it, it will be in nice shape when I sell it so the final cost of the HEI could balloon on me.

I am kind of leaning towards the HEI still. I know it will probably cost more in the long run but the $170,000 of saved interest will hopefully offset a decent amount it. We plan to sell in about 12-14 years when the kids finish high school. The HEI could end up being very costly at the end but I still wonder if it would be worth it due to the having substantially more financial security over the next decade while we raise the kids.

Any thoughts, suggestions, insights, or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty good at most subjects but finance isn't exactly my specialty.

Edit: forgot to include additional $600 payments after personal loan would be paid off to make it a more fair comparison for the HEL.