HELOC with 6-Month Seasoning Requirement & Investment Properties

[Nghi Le]

It has almost been 6 months, and I want to put a HELOC on my personal residence for rehab funds. Most of the banks I've talked to won't consider the appraised value until a year afterwards, but I've heard it's possible. Can you recommend a bank that will allow me to do a HELOC in Washington state after 6 months of ownership?

I'm also looking for a bank that will allow for a HELOC on an investment property up to $500,000. PenFed has been the closest, offering 80% LTV up to $400k on investment properties.

I also saw mentions of the following banks while searching through several of the other forums:
- TD Bank
- Talmer Bank
- Washington Federal
- BECU

Their website doesn't post too much details, so I'll have to call and ask in the morning.

[Nghi Le]

Sorry it took me so long to reply; my day job took priority over the last few days.  But I did manage to make some calls today.  Here are the results:

MECU, TD Bank, and Talmer Bank do not lend in Washington State.

BECU can do a HELOC on investment properties, 70% LTV, up to $500k. They can also do a loan right after 6 months. But the bad part is that debt-to-income has to be 43% and they can't count rental income until after 2 years. I'd still talk to BECU for all of your needs first because they're simply the best customer service I have ever received. I asked them to route me to their commercial/business lending department to see if I can get some kind of loan using the property as collateral. I should get a response in 1-3 days.

Washington Federal does have products for investment properties, and they can do things with only 6 months of seasoning, and they consider rental income right away. But they weren't able to do the loan I need, but they're pretty investor-friendly and only do portfolio loans, so you don't have to deal with ridiculous Fannie Mae rules. You might want to call them for your specific situation.

I also tried contacting some hard/private money companies for their mid- to long-term loan products. But their LTV and debt-to-income consideration was actually worse than a conventional mortgage. The good thing is that they're able to lend on LLCs.

@Lance Lvovsky There's also State Department Federal Credit Union. They lend up to 125% LTV up to $100k. If you want more than $100k, they'll lend up to 95% up to $300k. They're pretty awesome for primary residences, not so much for investment properties.