Using current equity to buying & rehab new primary residence

Using current equity to buying & rehab new primary residence

Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 15 posts · 2 votes

Hello bigger pockets! I need your help figuring out if I can leverage equity in my current home to buy and fix my next primary residence for as little money down as possible.

Here's my situation: I currently live in a condo in Atlanta with ~130k in equity, 30k in savings. I am single but I am engaged and about to get married.

My plan was to take a HELOC out on my equity and use the ~110k line of credit to rehab my next primary. I would pay the 5% down using my savings and draw from the HELOC during the rehab process while still living in the condo. Once the rehab was complete, I would sell the condo (my area is very hot and have been told by realtors I wouldn't even need to list it) and pay back the HELOC, then move into my newly rehabbed home with hopefully more equity in it than I had in my condo. So essentially I'm leveraging condo equity to get more equity in my next home. (and then cash out re-financing that home to invest in rentals, but that is besides the point)

Problems I'm now realizing:

- A bank won't give me a traditional home loan with 5% down because I'm still living in the condo while closing on what will honestly be my new primary residence. Don't have enough for 20%. 

- A bank won't give me a loan because the house is in disrepair/needs 50-100k in rehab.

Possible solutions that may come with their own set of problems:

- My fiance buys the new primary in her name. This would be her first home purchase. But - would a bank loan her the money since the new home is still seen as being "in disrepair"? Would the bank recognize the 110k HELOC as security for the new home's rehab (in her name) even though that money is secured by my condo in my name?

Anyone out there with any creative solutions or loan options I'm not thinking about? Very new to real estate investing so any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks all!

2Reply
15 views

6 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Flipper/Rehabber · Dallas, GA · Member since 2016 · 147 posts · 39 votes
    10y

    @Peter Kehr

    Hey man, welcome to BP! You've come to the right place, as many experienced investors here are very generous with their time in giving out advice. 

    If the house is in such bad shape that the bank won't give you a loan, you might want to go to a local bank or portfolio bank that specializes in real estate investing. You might have success there. Another option is to connect with a Hard Money Lender to fund your deal for the first 6-9 months until you can refinance and get a normal 30-yr loan with a bank (by then house would be in great shape). You could still leverage your HELOC to fund the rehab costs, but gotta think how you're going to pay that back once you sell, cuz that money is gonna be thrown into the new house.

    Have you looked into the Flip calculator here in BP? Here's the link:

    https://www.biggerpockets.com/flip-analysis

    Look up the webinars on the subject by Brandon Turner. You have to be a pro member though to watch replays:

    https://www.biggerpockets.com/proreplay

    You gotta make sure that the deal is a great one so this all makes sense. Otherwise, it's gonna be tough.

    All the best man!

  • Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 15 posts · 2 votes
    10y

    @Jorge Borjas Thanks for the response Jorge!

    The kind of houses i'm looking at are going for around $175k-$250k and needing about $75k-$125k in rehab. ARVs are in the 375k-500k range (Keep in mind, these are craigslist posts, so I'm taking them with a grain of salt until I do my DD).

    Again, to me, that sounds like a deal (using 130k in equity to ideally create 200k+ in equity, while making the future Wifey happy and getting out of a tiny condo and into a bigger home with a yard :D), but I'm a newb and could be looking at the numbers all wrong (am i?).

    To answer your point about paying the HELOC back, wouldn't that be paid in full with the sale of the condo? (130k in my pocket to pay off the 110k line of credit)

    Thanks for the links. I will def check those out!

    Much love

    P

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Dallas, GA · Member since 2016 · 147 posts · 39 votes
    10y

    I'm not sure how the HELOC works, but I think whatever you have tied into the new house in rehab costs, you're gonna have to subtract it from the 130k. Granted, that will reduce the loan amount cuz you're using your cash. You have to account for the out of pocket closing costs and things like that, which at this price range can be around $7k. The holding costs (interest payments) could range from $10k to $15k depending on long it takes you to rehab. There are a lot of intricacies that you have to think about. But big picture it makes sense. Just figure out the logistics.

  • Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 15 posts · 2 votes
    10y

    Yup. All great things to factor in. Thank you sir!

  • Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    10y

    Why not go ahead and sell the condo and rent something for the time of the rehab? Right now is  a pretty hot time to sell. If the agents are so confident that you might not even list it, then I think you should list it and get a bidding war ;-). 

    Sure, moving can suck, but it can also be exciting, as that would be the start of a new adventure and you wouldn't have such a hard time juggling things. You could buy the new house with a 203K loan or even FHA has some kind of rehab loan offered.

  • Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 15 posts · 2 votes
    10y

    @Michaela G. Ah! I did not know about a 203k loan. I will definitely look into it. One of the reasons I was trying to structure the sale like this is that the fiance isn't too keen on moving in with fam or moving into a rental while the home gets rehabbed. I suppose if we found the right place we could live there while it gets fixed, but with a dog and two cats that doesn't sound like the best plan.

    Anyways, thanks for the advice!

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.