What Is A Cash Out Refinance And What Can I Do With It?

By Justin Woodbury


A cash out refi is when the owner of a property opens a new loan that is larger than the existing loan to pay off the existing loan and have some extra cash. This borrower may use this money for just about any purpose in the same way they could use cash from just about any other source.

The cash out refinance is not the same as the standard refinance because the standard rate/term refinance the old loan is paid off and replaced with another loan with either a changed term such as going from a 30 year to a 15 year, a 15 year to a 30 year, to lower the interest rate, to move from a fixed interest rate to an adjustable to lower the payment, or from an adjustable to a fixed interest rate and get them into a safe and reliable monthly payment for the duration of the loan.

Since the last financial crisis, interest rates have been brought down to record lows. Because of this, the opportunity cost of doing a cash out refinance or taking out a home equity mortgage loan is much lower. This is because the interest rate that you would qualify for at the time of this writing is likely to be much lower than it was in the pre-crisis period.

Because the interest rates on a home loan are secured by real estate, you are likely to get a much lower interest rate on a home loan than you could for a personal loan or credit card. It is for this reason that many people all across the United States are turning to cash out refinances or home equity loans and second mortgages for their debt consolidation purposes.

If borrowers trade their high interest for low interest debts borrowers are sometimes able to free up enough cash flow to be a game changer in their lives. Borrowers are able to do this by either stretching their total debt payments out to the payoff term of a home loan, 15-30 years or so, lowering their interest rates and thus becoming able to pay off more principal, and by eliminating the toxic daily compounding interest rates like what you see with credit cards. Although there are sometimes costs associated with a refinance, most lenders will have no cost options available.

People also use cash out refinances, home equity loans and second mortgages because they need liquidity and or cash flow, or to make a home improvement such as adding a pool or solar panels. Rather than come out of pocket for what could be tens of thousands of dollars, they pull money from their equity instead. In any case, make sure you are taking your long term as well as short term goals into consideration before you commit to a loan program.




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