Congratulations on being close to debt-free!

Sometimes they can ONLY be used to pay down credit card debt on another card.

@Philip MurphyYou would need to have the taxes paid and payoff his mortgage for you to receive clear title and title insurance.All debts on the property must be satisfied to provide clear title

What no one is talking about it the amount of debt families are carrying right now.  

Other equally contributing factors you want to consider is the properties positive cashflow, asset appreciation over time, debt service paydown over time, as well as hedging your dollars against inflation - all of which make real estate such a great investment especially when you have the right property!

You could have a $500/mo power bill and it will not be included in debt to income ratios, but a $300 solar payment will be considered for DTI. 

Federal debt and fear of hyper inflation has homeowners in a gridlock.

Its caused him to go in to extreme debt and he just needs to get this handled. 

Monthly debt service at 7% interest.

So this is common thought and why it is a real challenge to get debt secured by the ADU value add at higher than 50% of the addition cost.