And anything within a block or so of the ocean is going to take an incredible beating from the winter weather salt air etc etc.. and then you have the Tsunami that is coming with teh massive earth quake that will come and that will wipe out whole towns on the Oregon coasts.

When you do a cash out refinance its cash in hand (liquid reserve) so it can be used as an asset or for PITI reserves on the next purchase.The other downfall is if your credit score should drop for any reason which can happen even my accident or mistake the lender will close or reduce the Heloc credit limit.

The total cost of project is more than we can qualify for based on personal income, although our W2 income and credit score all work in our favor.

It’s been an absolute time waste and incredibly frustrating experience to deal with this bank.

As for how much you will need-start by talking to a bank about how much you can borrow and your credit score. 

Their credit score is also slight less than the minimum credit score required to qualify so I can reject them based on those grounds. 

That would be incredible. 

Step one know your FICO score, keep it high.