Advise for mistakenly taking out HELOC for Home Remodeling

[Christian Gutierrez]

Hi all,

In 2020, my wife and I were added to the title of her grandparents home and will use this as our primary residence. This property is free and clear. I took out a HELOC on the home for 195,000 as a way to cover the home remodel. The house is valued at about 430,800. With the current remodel, I currently have a balance of about 70,000 with closing costs on the HELOC. We had a bump on the road as we took out permits to close out the garage and added 6 new impact windows, which all in all took about a 1 year and a half and costs more than we initially thought. Now, we are in the demolition phase of the project which I predict another 80,000 in the remaining remodeling expenses. After listening in on the podcasts it doesn't seem I'm going in the right path by using the HELOC to continue paying for the remodel as I don't have an ETA on when this remodel will finish and an exit plan to pay it off in a year as most recommend. Thus wanted advice on what to do now. Please help!