Advice needed for home equity loan....

[Julss05]

Long story short we need new siding put up asap. We've decided to go with a contractor who doesn't offer their own financing which led us to the idea of a home equity loan. I called my bank about one and the interest rate was great and closing costs paid if the loan is over a certain amount, but they said it will take 4-6 weeks from start to finish! We don't have that kind of time. I asked about a signature loan but the interest rate was higher than my credit card. I went to Capital One's site and they offer the same rate for a home equity loan as my bank and say the whole process only takes 10 days or less which would be perfect! I've never had any problems with Capital One services but I was wondering if anyone has used them for a home equity loan? I also don't feel comfortable putting our house up for collateral so I was wondering if anyone had further suggestions for timely financing at a low interest rate. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Kingdono]

My husband is a contractor how bad is your current siding? Is it aluminum or vinyl? You might not need to replace it that quickly. Also if you live in cold weather their is a lot more spoilage in the cold moths because vinyl shatters like a glass in cold weather. Have you thought of buying the siding your self? If you buy it from a Home Depot or Lowes you could finance at least 6 months with no interest and then pay the contractor the installation fee. Just be careful about the type of product you buy. The instore siding that they carry is very thin and fragile. Get some product samples to inspect the thickness. Also are you going to re-wrap the home with tyvek or install additional backer board insulation? I know this is a lot of questions but I don;t want to se someone rush into something they don't need.

[udsweetpea]

I'm sending you a PM.

[Julss05]

Kingdono- Our current siding is okay but some sections need to be replaced. Currently we have wood slab sheets but it's too much maintenance so we are switching to vinyl. The wood slab has to be primed and painted before being put up and doesn't last that long. I'm not sure what kind of insulation we are going with yet. I should mention we are apart of an anal retentive neighborhood association who demand that our vinyl be just like our neighbors matching the color as close as possible but our neighbors didn't like their contractor and didn't recommend them to us. Our time situation stems from the fact that the association use to do yearly home inspections and if something needed repaired you'd have to fix it within so many days or be fined by them. This year they are not doing inspections and handed it over to the city. So although I don't think our house is that bad, (we were going to wait until spring to do the whole thing) we only have 30 days to get this done per city code citation. If we had the time and didn't have a 2-story with a very tall roof line we'd do it ourselves probably.

[Kingdono]

I would think that there should be some form of an appeals process or a way to explain that it will be completed by X date. I would call the city or town clerk and see if they offer a solution so that you don't need to finance it or replace it ASAP. You could also ask for the building department to find licensed contractors. I'm not sure of your location but in our area a lot of contractors are not licensed or properly insured. For example they have property coverage but thier isn't really a way to claim on it. You should ask for insurance certificates from the contractor you choose and then call and ask coverage senerio questions. For instance does the contractor need to call first about situations or can you call to request a claim. Just so you know if something happens it can be covered. IT will typically cost a little more when you work with a legit contractor but you are less likely to get poor workmanship or timeline issues. It is still a viable solution to find a supplier and buy it yourself and have the contractor install it. (It will probably be cheaper too) Good Luck

My only suggestion if you do a Home Equity is make sure it's fixed. We had an adjustable with no cap and it kept going up and up and up.

[Julss05]

Thanks for the help! There is an appeals process but we aren't exactly appealing it, we agree that it needs to be fixed I just don't agree with the way it's being asked. I'll be asking for an extention because it will take at least 60 days to get the financing and find a reputable contractor to start working on it. I think we will probably stick with our local bank and as long as we can show proof that we've started on it with a projected finish date they should leave us alone I'm hoping.

[udsweetpea]

I just noticed on Capital One's commercial that there's a $50,000 loan amount minimum for home equity loans. Just thought I'd let you know. Hope you're having good luck getting everything situated!

[Julss05]

OMG that's a lot! We ended up going with our local bank. We will be closing on the loan next week. We didn't borrow a lot only the amount we needed to get the siding and some left over to remodel the kitchen for our townhouse. I know some people borrow a lot but we didn't want to do that for many reasons, this is a reasonable amount we should be able to pay off in a few years. I think it's important to to keep a home equity loan amont below the city's assessment or appraisal not what the house could sell for because as we have seen recently the real estate market can change and unforseen, uncontrolable things can happen to make the home value go up or down. We got an extension to get the work done so hopefully everything else will go just as smoothly!