Good/flexible HELOC bank

[Daniel Boufford]

Hello,

I'm seeking a HELOC for my condo and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for banks. I just spoke with Bank of America and it sounds like it will be a slog, like 8 weeks to close on it. Was hoping to close faster and I also wanted to compare rates as well.

Home value - $675,000

Mortgage $385,000

Want as large a HELOC as I can get. BoA has an 80% LTV max, but would rather use another lender if they can do 85% or 90% (doubtful).

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

[Account Closed]

I would try your local credit unions

[Tobey Porter]

Not sure if you have PNC in your area but we're going through the process with them right now and getting 89%.  A word of caution with them, the initially order a desk appraisal, i.e. they don't step foot in your house.  The issue we ran into with this is we have put almost $80k into our house adding sq. footage, bedroom, bathroom, etc, and that was not reflected on the desk appraisal (even though I tried to explain this to the banker knowing inevitably what it would lead to).  Had they done a full appraisal initially, we could've closed in 30 days. 

[Jason H.]

Hi @Tobey Porter I know this is an old post, but regarding your comment about PNC or your experience with any other bank for a HELOC, do any of them actually go and visit the house, either personally as a bank or through a secondary vendor like an appraiser? Are LOC's usually approved with desk appraisal only? Would like to hear your feedback. Thanks!

[Tobey Porter]

@Jason H. - my apologies for the delayed response.  PNC did a desk appraisal for us initially.  However, if you've done some improvements to your place, I would request someone come to the house.  We had a bit of an issue because I tried to explain to them we had done about $70k worth of improvements to the house so a desk/drive-by appraisal was not going to work.  They didn't honor that at first so when the appraisal came back at right what we paid for it, we had to go back at them & request an actual appraisal.  We also had our realtor pull better comps as the desk appraisal had used comps older than 6 months. 

It was a bit delayed but we eventually got an appraisal for about $42K more. 

[Phil Weiler]

Bank of America does a drive by appraisal. I'm told they are checking general condition and to make sure there is no active construction happening. I believe this is rather common.

[Don Daniels]

Capital one was quick for me. Only annoying thing for me was Texas limits HELOCS to 1/2 appraised value