Equity Home Loan Basics

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In general, the basics of a equity home loan are quite simple. An equity home loan is a loan secured against the equity of your home. The lenders will measure the equity amount of your home, by looking at how much of the mortgage remains (if any) and what the current value of the property is. Most high street lenders are happy to lend money of up to 75% of your home’s equity. Similar to a mortgage, the loan will usually run for 10 to 25 years and have a rate of interest applied.

An equity home loan is a one off lump sum of money when you take up a loan. Usually, the loan period is between 5 to 30 years and the interest rates are fixed. The payment amount per month is fixed as well.

An equity home line of credit allows you to borrow a fixed amount of money for the life of the loan. You do not need to take a lump sum loan at once since you can withdraw any amount of the loan when you need it. In a sense, it works like a credit card.

The interest rate for an equity home line of credit is variable and will rise and fall during the loan period. Payment per month depends on the total sum loaned, the interest rate and whether your credit is in the payment or draw period. During equity draw period, you can decide whether to pay the principal loan amount or the minimum payments to cover the interest.

As you see, an equity loan line of credit has greater flexibility compared to home equity loan. However in both cases, if you decide to sell the house before the loan is fully paid, you are required to pay the balance immediately.