a $20,000 HELOC and how a Lender will interpret ??

[Michael Dunn]

If you have a HELOC of $20,000

When a Lender goes to look at my DTI ....... How will they look at this, as far as it being a Debt/Expense to me and them factoring it into the DTI for me getting approved for the loan ?

The minimum payment right now  ( for the next  4 and a half years  )  is  $48 a month 

So if I were to try and get a Loan for a property in the next 3 - 6 months , would they just use the $48 ( minimum payment ) that I'm paying on the HELOC as a monthly Expense ?

OR 

Would they assume I have a Higher Monthly Expense , since the HELOC is only good for the Minimum Payment for 5 years ( 4 years and 6 months left ) before the Principal Payment kicks in , which will be around $400 a month

The HELOC is for $20,000 , of which ONLY $7,000 has been used

Thank you for the help 

[Harjeet Bhatti]

The lender will count full p&I payment on $20000. The reason is you have access to that much money. You can avoid it by reducing HELOC loan amount and freeze it.