All Forum Posts by: Roman Soltinschi

@Andrew Postell totally agree. Also, lately I'm evaluating most, if all, my purchases through the prism of "what's the gain this move will bring me?". I mean, I'm looking to invest some money to make an ADU in my garage to rent it out so this investment may make sense. In the case of the OP we don't know though whether that over the garage addition will be an ADU that will bring income or just an extra room or storage that won't bring any money. If first then I'd take a loan or HELOC or HELOAN, but if we're talking about the second option- "pleasure"- then I wouldn't risk of getting any loans and just plan to spend what I already can afford to bury into the house. I mean, what's the final goal? Is there a plan in place or "Look at the Jones' garage, we need to build one too!".

I'm about in the same situation, looking to do a garage conversion into ADU. It looks like refinancing is the worst option- you'll have to go through all the shenanigans again as you'd buy a new home as well as cover all the costs- appraisal, title, closing on THE NEW TOTAL AMOUNT.

HELOC rates today seem to be in the 8-s, anyways HELOC is an adjustable rate mortgage and will fluctuate up and down depending on the market rate. Two months ago my credit union offered HELOC for 4.25%, today is 8%. However I'd use a HELOC only if I'd be sure I can pay it back with interest in less than a year. Beside that, HELOC is a revolving line of credit like a credit card so if you pay it back and couple years later your wife will decide that you need to build a sunroom (and trust me, she will) or put some money down on an investment property you'll have the HELOC money ready for action.

If you have all that money available in cash or stocks that would seem to be the easiest way.

@Tom S. I'm wondering if Aven puts a second lean on the home. Asking because I already have a second lean on my primary residence that comes from the down payment assistance (DPA) program and if so they may ask me to pay off the DPA before I could proceed with them. Today it's the second time I went through the soft pull with Aven, tried couple months ago they offered $35k at 6% and today's offer was $50k at 8.74%. I also checked my local credit union web site, today's rate for HELOC is around 8% meanwhile couple months ago it was 4.25%. The equity I've got in the house is around $160k (I owe $301k on the primary and $8k on DPA; Zestimate $468k, my neighbor sold his house a month ago for $530k). Does Aven do a physical appraisal or only use online data for it?

Thanks!