I'm curious as I have never done a re-fi myself so far but have had my fair share of nuisances in the original financing rounds (to put it mildly... you're not alone ;-) ): I would have thought that refinancing an already mortgaged property, especially with equity in it, should be a no-brainer?

The bottom unit is where I wanted to live and during my two week vacation installed hot water heater, plumbed, rewired, flooring, paint and electric baseboard heaters.

Typically it works something like this (I'll use round numbers to keep it simple):- You have a house worth $200k- Let's say your current mortgage balance is $100k (50% LTV)- You find a lender that will give you a HELOC up to 80% LTV- 80% LTV on a $200k house is $160k, but you already have a mortgage for $100k so that would leave 30% equity (or $60k) available for the new HELOCIf you end up getting a HELOC with a $60k limit, your original mortgage payment won't change and you'll just make payments on the HELOC as you use it according to whatever the terms of the HELOC are.Make sense?

It took us almost a year and several rounds of negotiations to get it in contract. 

If not then these criteria fall to the bottom of the search list very quickly.Of course neither of these criteria are mutually exclusive either, but I believe the hierarchy of requirements change based upon the way you look at your long term goals.What I have found is that to many first time primary residential buyers get lost in that emotional space between being a young couple who live in the present vs a young couple who are read to start a family.Which are you?

Emails start from the bottom, up.

Put RGB LED strip lights on the top and bottom of the mantle, aimed to shine up and down along the rock. 

I live in top half of the house, have my own kitchen and bath.Rent bottom half out for $1,000/month (market rent $1,00), house is set up as duplex.

@Malcolm Lawson Yea the place we put an offer on was nicely flipped and the bottom "unit" really did feel like an apartment all on its own.  

@Simon Ruiz I think it would have at least a small impact for sure, economically if a tram cut a 2 hour commute in half and the average person makes $25 an hour plus say $5 in gas that's $60 round trip.