Refinance Help - Just Lost My Job But Need To Pull Out Cash

[Justin Jaeger]

Hey all,

I just bought a new house in August, 2017. We moved in and remodeled the basement into a 2 bedroom unit. We added the 2 rooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette with brand new everything down there. We also did quite a bit of work refreshing the upstairs.

The deal was done privately, so no banks have been involved yet. However, our plan was that after the remodel, we would refinance with a bank, pull out cash, and get the family members money out of the deal. We are just finishing this project the first week of January, 2018, when I lost my job just before Christmas. My plan was to launch into self employment later this year(after the refinance, of course), but I guess now is the time, I won't be getting another job. Though I am making income already, it only goes back 6 months and is not currently on any tax returns. 

My wife has been self employed for 3 years, but has consistently made about $14k per year. 

If we could pull out the equity we now have(we got a great deal to begin with), we would be able to pay off the money we borrowed for the remodel, as well as 2 of our other debts, increasing our cash flow by over $300/month. Are there any options for a cash out refinance as a newly self employed individual? Are their options to bring on a cosigner not living in the property to secure a new loan? Do I simply need to wait it out(definitely don't want to do that).

ps - I have not called any lenders yet, just thought I'd ask here first to get some direction with what to pursue and how. 

Thanks for any tips!

[Jon Holdman]

Your best bet to be able to refi is to get another job.  Sorry.  You'll need the rental income on two tax returns in order for that to count.  So you're probably looking at sometime in the first half of 2019 before you could refi based on the rental and self employment income.  My advice would be to find another job similar to what you had, do the refi, work the side job in your non-working hours, build up some savings and then look at going full time self employed in 12-18 months.