Home Refi or Sec Mortgage?

[Bill Patrick]

Hi all!  Great forum and I hope to learn a lot hanging around!  My situation - I own my own home in NY free & clear with no outstanding debts.  Credit score is north of 800 as well so we're doing ok.  My daughter, a single mom, needs a little help so I'm looking to help her get into a small condo for the time being.  She can't get a note so I can either take equity out of my place or get an "investment property" type mortgage and let her pay the rent to cover the payments.  My question surrounds which loan route is best?  With the refi, the won't be points so it's probably cheaper and quicker but are there pro's to going the other way (tax benefits, etc) or is this an easy answer?  Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or recommendations would be most appreciated from this new investor!!  Thanks!

[Chris Mason]

Happy to help, @Bill Patrick. Sweetheart deals for family, there's almost always some angle you can work on the mortgage side of things to get a better deal than what you'd get on a vanilla open market transaction. 

Lurkers: for any parent/child sweetheart deal, go ahead and assume there's some awesome angle to work on the mortgage front, and don't stop searching until you find it. It took a little spidey sense on my part, and one question, to find that angle for Bill, but there will be an angle for you too.