Best HELOC Options?

[whitemerlot]

Hello,
I’m interested in a pretty large home renovation and was wondering what the best way to compare HELOC option is. Questions

Do they all require an appraisal? We have about 400k equity and would be looking at a 150-200k line.

I know most rates follow prime, are there better deals on closing costs?

I’m a teacher so if there are any special programs for teachers, that would also be awesome.

We have high credit scores and a low debt to income ratio.

Thank you!

[hazelden]

I've used low interest loans and grants from MN Center for Energy & Environment in the past. www.mncee.org/city-specific-loans

We met the income restrictions when we did our projects, but I don't think every program has income restrictions. The loans we used were small enough that we could take them out as unsecured.

I've been really happy with MNCEE and plan to use them again, probably for a fence replacement and some landscaping work that we need to button up.

[wanderingback]

Not the same as a HELOC, but when we got a home equity loan I just did a brief google search to see what general rates were. I decided to go with a local credit union. It didn’t require an inside appraisal. I forget the exact term, but the person just had to drive by the house.

[simpsongal]

We opened our HELOC ~5 ish years ago, it's variable, so around 7% or so right now. There's an annual fee for keeping it open too (few hundred bucks). I think the appraisal was easy. It's worth shopping around, but we largely didn't find anything much better.

It might be worth looking into other finance options too. We spent about $215K on our last reno, and did a mix of cash, 0% CCs, HELOC, and 401K (TSP) loan. The HELOC is only $75K, but at 7% the interest adds up - it's the highest interest loan we took out.