Borrowing against their home equity gets some people feeling iffy, viewing the transaction with suspicion and thinking that it is a ploy for lenders to rob someone off of their home. The truth is far from this. Borrowing against one’s home equity can prove to be a smart financial decision as long as it is done right and for the right reasons.

Using Your Home Equity

Your home equity is the value your home that you actually own. It is defined as the difference between what the homeowner still owes in the current mortgage and the home’s current market value. Considering this definition, there are 2 ways to increase your home equity. One is when you make payments towards your mortgage, and another is when the value of your home increases such as when real estate value increases or when you make certain home improvements that add value to your home.

Borrowing Against Your Home Equity

You can tap your home equity by getting a loan against it. There are different types of home loans that are taken against your home equity. We will talk about the 3 most popular options today – getting a HELOC or a home equity line of credit,  getting a mortgage refinance, or getting a second mortgage or a lump sum home equity loan. It can get confusing regarding whether you should go for a HELOC, a second mortgage, or a home refinance to access your home equity so read on to get an idea about each one.

Mortgage Refinance

A mortgage refinance is a great way to tighten things up when there has been a significant change in your home’s value such as in the case of skyrocketing home prices in areas that have undergone some recent development. Depending on the terms of the refinance, you may find yourself saving a lot of money on interest fees, finding that it is easier to pay your loans, or even both.

Second Mortgage

Also called home equity loan, a second mortgage allows you to tap your equity and get a lump sum of cash that you can use to consolidate debt or pay for any huge expense. Debt consolidation is a popular reason for applying for a second mortgage because it lets the homeowner save so much on interest fees for high-interest loans. The downside is that paying back a second mortgage usually comes with a short time frame.

Home Equity Line of Credit

A HELOC is the most flexible compared to the previous 2 ways to tap your home equity. The payment for a HELOC can also prove to be the easiest to manage; however, you won’t benefit much from a HELOC unless you need access to a revolving credit source cash for quite some time. Remember that payment will be scheduled at a certain time so you can’t just go to the lender and pay back your HELOC even when you have the means to do so.

Are you still unsure whether is it time to leverage your home equity? Talk to us and let us know what your concerns are so we can help you choose a loan product that will best suit your needs. Contact us at Mortgage Central Canada today!