Refinancing 1st mortgage with a HELOC?

[Thomas Murphy]

Hello BP!

So, my wife and I have a condo in South Florida that we bought in 2005. We used it as our primary residence for a year or so and then had to leave due to military transfer. We've held it as a rental ever since. Fast forward a few years, and through some not-so-good decision making on my part, we took a HELOC, and then did a loan modification on the primary mortgage(re-amortized it to a 40-year term). We would like to hold onto the property. However, there is not a lot of equity in it ,and my interest rate is going to increase after the first of the year. This will almost certainly wipe out the little bit of cash flow that I do have.

Do I have any options to consolidate both loans and refinance them down to maybe a 15 or 20 year fixed? Or do you see any other course of action that might be helpful?

Any recommendations you might have would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!  

[Joe Villeneuve]

First, you don't want to bring it down to a 15-20 year mortgage.  All that will do i take CF from you since the mortgage payments will be higher.

Second, with no equity, it's going to be really hard (impossible) to refi.