When you have a low-rate first mortgage you do not want to touch, a second lien is often the right tool, and lenders still make both HELOCs and fixed-rate home equity loans (HELOANs). The first move is always the blended-rate math: compare a HELOC, a fixed HELOAN, and a full cash-out refinance side by side. For a borrower who owes, say, $300,000 to $500,000 on a first mortgage in the low 3s and wants to pull $75,000 to $100,000, blowing up that first-mortgage rate to refinance rarely pencils, so the real choice is which second-lien product fits. A few structural realities help you choose. Big banks got badly burned on home-equity losses after 2008, so bank and credit-union HELOCs now carry stricter underwriting and often take 30 to 45 days. Non-bank lenders like us underwrite more flexibly, including bank-statement options for self-employed borrowers, usually at somewhat less aggressive terms. On fixed versus adjustable: - A HELOC is variable, so the rate and payment move with the market. If you will repay quickly, its flexibility can win. - A fixed second locks the rate and payment. If a rising payment would cost you sleep, or you expect to carry the balance a long time, the fixed structure is safer. Nobody can promise where rates go, so we run the actual numbers for your balance, timeline, and risk tolerance rather than following a blanket rule. That comparison is quick to do in a free Roadmap conversation.