All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Papadakis

You will generally find that HELOCs have extremely high interest rates in today's market as they are based on PRIME + a lender spread. As of today, the base prime rate is 8.50%

In order to make this an effective strategy, I would highly recommend looking up local credit unions in your area that offer promotional HELOC rates. You will likely find credit unions that offer significantly lower promotional rates for 6 months to 2 years.

This will let you have lower holding costs on your next investment while you try to add some value. Then you can do a cash out refi where as an owner occupant you can get the benefit of a lower long-term fixed rate primary mortgage as your HELOC promo rate expires. The catch is that local credit unions generally have strict underwriting guidelines, more manual paperwork/less automated processes, and typically have HELOC caps of $150-$250k.

Good luck!