Silverlake Duplex - HELOC Refinance?
In September 2021 my wife and I purchased the Duplex we were renting for the previous five years in Silverlake, Los Angeles. This was our first real estate purchase of any kind. We were living in the back house and the front house had a tenant paying almost market rates at the time of purchase. The tenant moved out early March, we made some minor updates, repainted and were able to have a new tenant in for April 1st with a rent increase to market rate for the new tenants. Both units are freestanding, 2br/2ba. All has been going well with the new tenants and the property, our monthly out of pocket is substantially less than what we were initially paying in rent.
When purchasing the property, we came up a little short of the required 20% deposit. Our mortgage broker was able to set up a HELOC to bridge the remaining $60K+/- that was required. At the time, the interest rate on the HELOC was 5.5% though now it's at 7.99%. The main mortgage is 30 year fixed at 3.1%.
We had a good relationship with the previous owners, bought under asking and probably under market without the threat of multiple offers from other buyers. The initial plan when we purchased the property in 2021 was to cash out refinance and pay of the HELOC though that opportunity passed us by fairly quickly with the interest rate increases.
Other than making the monthly payments to pay off the HELOC, is there any strategies we should be considering to clear or reduce the cost of the HELOC?
Thanks,
-Andy