Home Equity Loans: Simple, Easy, and Understandable

Tip! The home equity line of credit, or HELOC, is like a bank account where you continue to write checks sponsored by the equity of your home. A HELOC does not have a fixed period of time wherein it will be paid off, because you can continue to borrow against it, just like to a credit card.

Home equity loans are very popular nowadays, especially with the lending institutions. What is a home equity loan? Say you have a house that is worth $100,000. You owe $80,000 to the bank for the home. That leaves you with $20,000 in home equity that you can borrow; $100,000 the house is worth minus the $80,000 you still owe.

Banks and lending institutions are more than willing to issue you a loan for all or part of the equity you posses in your home if you are willing to let them. They simply issue you a second mortgage on your house and then put a lien against your home for the amount of the loan they have issued. This provides the lending institutions with a fairly secure loan using the home as collateral. What that means is that in the case of a defaulted loan they can lay claim to equity from the sale of the home containing their lien.

What are the benefits of a home equity loan? The benefits to the borrower are many, but the main benefit is that the interest paid on a home equity loan is tax deductible, for most people, just like the interest on your primary mortgage. So depending on your tax bracket and the amount of the home equity loan, the savings generated from the tax deduction can be attractive. If you were to take a simple loan from a bank or borrow from your credit card you would not be able to deduct the interest payments on those loans from your taxes like you can with a home equity loan.

The process for obtaining a home equity loan is fairly simple. You start by contacting a lending institution that provides home equity loans. The institution will schedule an appraisal of your home. The appraisal will cost around $500. That amount can usually be rolled back in to your new loan so that you do not have to come up with the cash. Once the appraisal is done, the lending institution will run a credit report on you and determine your credit score. Your credit score will then determine the amount of credit they are willing to extend, the interest rate for your loan, and the term (length of time) of the loan.

Most companies that provide home equity loans will spend time trying to find you the best offer possible based on your credit score. After the lending institution has their best loan offer ready to go they will contact you and provide you all the relevant information. At that point it is just a matter of closing on your home equity loan like any other.

Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing informative articles for InfoBriefs.com, child insurance articles for ChildInsure.com, and technology articles for ScoutTechnology.com.

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Home equity loans drying up for some - Business - Personal finance ...
Like many homeowners during the housing boom, Lynnette Madden and her husband decided to open a home equity line of credit about a year and a half ago as ...
Americans' home equity near a record low - Business - Real estate ...
WASHINGTON ? Falling U.S. home prices have shrunk equity so much that the proportion of their homes that Americans actually own is near its lowest point ...
Home equity lines have dried up across U.S. - Business - Personal ...
Home equity lines have dried up across U.S. As home prices collapse, banks cut off credit, further souring the economy Below:
Late payments for home equity loans rise - Business - Real estate ...
WASHINGTON ? Late payments on home equity loans climbed to a 1½-year high in the opening quarter of this year, while delinquencies on credit card bills ...
Retirees no longer count on home equity - Business - Personal ...
Many Americans have recently found themselves changing retirement plans after losing a substantial amount of home equity as the housing market and the ...
Equity in Americans? homes falls to historic low - Business ...
NEW YORK ? The equity Americans have in their most important asset ? their homes ? has dropped to its lowest level since the end of World War II ...
Students get creative to pay off loans - Business - Personal ...
Lines of credit typically work like a credit card, with a limit and a revolving balance: the average home-equity line of credit currently has an interest rate ...
Use of home equity hits a four-year low - Business - Real estate ...
Use of home equity hits a four-year low Freddie Mac report cites falling residence values, stricter lending standards Below:
Ford, Toyota are pinning their hopes on China - Business - Autos ...
NEW YORK ? Ford Motor Co. plans to build a new assembly plant in China ... $30K home equity loan FICO: 5.75%
Cities sue, invest to stop foreclosures - Business - Real estate ...
These stem from lost tax revenue and jobs as well as slower consumer spending that come with home equity declines, and don?t even include the financial toll ...

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