Refinancing - equity for investments, opinions?

[Melissa Kirchhoff]

So I've had my mortgage on my primary residence for almost 8 years, we bought low, fixed up, 20% down, etc. So I have a fair amount of equity on my home. Though the comps are weird for my area, I'd guess that I have 45-65k in equity after factoring in the 80% rule. That's a lot of money I could be investing!

Also, that loan has pretty unfavorable terms, and I'd like to think now I'd be able to get something much more in favorable, better rates and terms.

So given that, would you recommend a cash out refinance or HELOC? I originally thought the HELOC was something like a refinance with a line of credit, not that it was another loan on top of your first mortgage, so is there something that can combine both LOC and refinance so I can get better terms rolled into the advantages of pulling when I need it and replenishing (I assume?) as needed? Is there something else besides this that I could take advantage of that maybe I don't even know about?? In my situation, what would you do to capitalize on that equity?