From years of experience, not in REI, but in online forums, skype chat rooms etc. 

I know it is adviced not to do any large moves like taking out a credit card, HELOC, or refinancing a home during a mortgage process.

Just wondering if there's a quick and reliable online vendor, or should I just take my RE broker's advice (I trust her) and use her "guy" (she's never done home equity through him, to me it just sounds like another person who needs to take a cut)? 

Sure, we could tap it by refinancing or taking out a HELOC, but why not sell a relatively small equity interest (or something like equity) to an investor?

Treat this as a normal business transaction, do not even consider this as being family.As for the interest/principal calculation's there are numerious calculators on line.

A hard money lender will record a loan against your property and the bank refinancing will see this. 

I simply refinanced it into my primary mortgage.

Buy a rekey kit from Change-a-Lock or Primeline, available online or at home centers.

What are the preferred methods of online lein searching?

The good news is it’s simple math and online deal analysis and calculations make the math much easier and with a greater degree of accuracy