@Justin Jacobs, I currently have my HELOC in the first position. I have an 85% loan to value on it and can use all the equity up to 85% of its appraised value with a Key Bank.
One would say that's crazy why pay all that interest, well there is a unique method I use to pay off my mortgage my simply deposit all my pay into the HELOC pushing the principle down on a daily basis. In short, interest is calculated differently in a HELOC than a traditional mortgage. There is a book written by Harj Gil and he called this equity acceleration. It is a unique and super cool way to pay your mortgage. In essence, I am using the banks money (my credit card) to buy all of my every day items and simply paying my balance statement every month. I deposit my paychecks in the heloc which records as a payment and satisfied that requirement. It is interest only (prime rate and variable). Interest is the average daily balance, so if you have income streams coming in the average daily balance will be from the day the billing cycle starts (what your principle balance is) to the day the cycle ends (what that principle balance is). Take every day, see what your balance is, all 31 days and add them up. Divide it by 31 and you are paying interest on whatever that average balance is for that billing cycle. Saves you a fortune. Lastly, every dollar you pay in excess of your interest goes straight to principle. It is genius. Check it out.
