You made smart decisions to build up that home equity, now be careful with it
There are a number of good reasons to utilize your home equity, and some not so good ones. There are several ways to access it as well. Things like pulling out cash to start a business, do capital improvements to your property that add equity and utility, or to help out with a one time or temporary acute cash need such as medical expenses would all qualify as sound uses. However, utilizing your equity to plug an ongoing budget imbalance that this will not solve should be approached warily, to say the least. Once you’ve decided to tap your equity, as this article touches on, pulling out cash by doing a refi may not be the best way. Possible negatives include a higher interest rate than you currently have, re-starting the amortization of your mortgage and the actual cost of doing it. However, depending on your current note rate you could actually kill two birds with one stone and reduce your rate at the same time. An alternative might be to get a HELOC or other type of secondary financing to pair with your current loan if you already have exceptional terms. I’m pretty darn good at analyzing these scenarios and of course have great resources to refer you to so reach out to me if you are considering tapping your homes equity.
It’s a good life.
Chris
