Long story short. Me and wife bought our house at the very end of 2016. Upgraded a lot of the house DIY style. For those that need visuals. Here is my house looks nothing like this now. https://www.zillow.com/homedet... Added a lot of equity. Interest rates were low. So we did a cash out REFi in 2021 locked in a fixed at 2.8%. Took 30k out payment only went up. We don't make a lot of money but we are good at budgeting. Together we barley clear 120k annually, but we know how to live below our means.

During covid wife lost her job but was making more then she was at work. Plus we cut back more over all. Between saving all stimulus checks, cash out refi, Lucky tax break from our adoption. Boom we some how scrapped together 60k in savings in one year!!! WE took this 60k and turned our garage into an ADU. 100% legit permitted. separated electric meters, separated addresses. Here is my ADU if you would like to see made a little YouTube video of it.

BIG QUESTION

Best way to tap into this new equity so we can try and start to get some kid of a ball rolling. decided to go get a long term renter 1 year agreement (almost covers whole mortgage.). I don't want to Refi and lose the 2.8. I applied for a HELOC two months after ADU was complete and my credit union said I'm broke on paper. They didn't want to include any of my income streams. They would not include the gas checks I get from work every month even though I can prove I've been getting them every month for five years. They would not include adoption money I get from the state every month. They would not include new rental income. They would not include my wife's two new jobs because they said she had only been working three weeks. My house hold income went from 120k increased to 140k. On paper they told me they can only include 44k worth of income. I would just start saving again but inflation is making living below your means a lot harder to say the least. haha.

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. I don't need a road map, I know time and money. I'm just looking for a simple hey you should look into this. A few key words or creative ideas on what my recourse should be. Any information will help.

Just a newbie willing to take any guidance.

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