Advise for getting a 80% refinance

[Robert N.]

Hello BP community! I have run into an issue after I thought I did every thing correctly.

Here is what I did (my homework):

1.Called MANY banks and finally finding one locally who would do a portfolio loan/refinance for me.

2. Was told I could pull 80% out of the equity on a duplex I own (I didn't have a loan on this one, so I was 100% equity).

I thought - great! Now I can reinvest this money into other properties.

Problem:

The banker was slow in doing paperwork and I kept on him (like asking him many times to send an appraiser out, etc...I was polite but straightforward). I finally had to ask the bank for a different loan officer...but all that happened was it got kicked back to the original guy with him apologizing to me for his tardiness. I am new in this business, so I thought we would move on from there with this loan - no problem.

Now I am closing on March 5th on another duplex and need that down payment money being pulled from my first/original duplex...but here in the last minute, instead of the loan officer giving me 80% of my equity, he won't do it...now it is less than 25% and he says it needs to be a home equity line of credit. He is now "concerned" about my debt to income ratio (he has had my tax records, credit report, etc. for a while). The good news is that this lower amount is still enough (barely) to help me cover the cost of the closing, but I have a lot of equity still in the original duplex I would like to have access to invest in more real estate.

I don't want to mess up my closing on March 5th so I plan on signing the paperwork for this home equity line of credit today. I am asking for any suggestions as to how to get the rest of my equity out (and maybe a way to pay off this home equity line of credit with this current bank) is appreciated. I know there will be even more fees if I close this line of credit out early (within the first one or two years) but I'd like to move on and write off the extra expenses (closing costs/early repayment fees) as a learning experience. I believe if I was to take out more money from this property from another lender, and if the original lender found out, they could ask that their loan be repaid in full immediately.) Yep, I feel like I've been played...as I am new to this business, I have a lot of learning to do and looking forward to finding better ways of doing business in the future. Thank you for any advice.