Refinancing options on primary residence following a short sale

[Zac C.]

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for the advice - here is my situation:

Wife and I purchased a townhome here in FL from the bank for 80k cash back in May (2014) and are currently using as our primary residence. We would like to pull out 50k in the form of a HELOC to make improvements to the home if possible.

Unfortunately, we went through a short sale on our previous residence in Feb 2013 which is proving to make it a challenge to refinance our new home. I have spoken with a couple local lenders about options. One told me due to the previous short sale, we'd have to wait a minimum of 4 years following the short sale to be eligible to get any kind of HELOC on our new property. Alternatively, he said we may be eligible for a cash-out refinance within 2 years of the short sale closing.

Our new home is owned free in clear and the title is in both our names. Both of our credit scores are back over 700 following the short sale and we each have solid 2+ years of W2 income records.

What options, if any do we have in terms of refinancing and pulling cash out of our current residence that do not require us waiting on our short sale situation to get cleared up?