Building a new home - what's the cheapest, quickest way to access equity in existing home?

I’m going to have to be that guy…

How in the world do you not have a plan for this… you went as far as paying for a lot and saying you want to build the home but have no idea how to get the money to do it. Even if you don’t know, that’s what real estate attorneys, mortgage brokers, realtors, etc do for a living… you consult one of them. Don’t know how some of y’all make it in the real world.

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access my current home's equity to help pay for the new house

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Are you sure this is necessary?

It may be cheaper to borrow the money from a bank, and then when you sell your house, use that cash to pay down a big chunk.

I could pay for all of it cash if I needed to, but I'm trying to avoid that. I've talked to all the folks you mentioned... Just polling the board for other ideas.

Rates aren’t dirt cheap anymore.

If that cash is true cash, probably best to use it. Or at least a a good chunk.

Combine some cash with a little HELOC if you don’t want to be ‘house poor.’

Thanks folks - I had no idea the heloc market was so big and accessible

Origination costs for construction loans were sickening and I also didn't want to deal with any more red tape than I have to. We will put a permanent mortgage in place on the new build once we've completed construction and sold the old house.

If you have ample investments in a taxable brokerage, you could borrow against them using a pledged asset line or securities backed line of credit. You can negotiate rates based on size of your portfolio. I used IBKR's advertised rates as a negotiating point and got SOFR +1.55% much better than my broker's advertised rates. Offer/threaten to move portfolio if they cant compete.

Advantage your assets remain fully invested and you dont realize capital gains tax hit selling to generate cash.

Disadvantage the rate is variable based on SOFR (Currently 5.33% was .3% when I took the loan) + a fixed rate. So, I'm now paying 6.88%.) Also, you can only borrow something like 70% of portfolio value and if you fall below that you can get margin called. So, I made sure not to borrow anywhere close to that much.

Dont know if they charge to hold it open (dont think so).

I would reach out to Fidelity and Schwab (I'm less optimistic VG would negotiate on rate.) Dont just call the customer service line call the rep assigned your account. Tell them you are interested in transferring/consolidating accounts w them if they can give you a competetive rate for an asset line of credit. While tou can't borrow against retirement assets they still may help w negotiating as they want more assets under their roof. IBKR rates here are a good reference point Interactive Brokers loan rates I was willing to pay small rate premium to stay w my broker instead of IBKR to speed transaction and because I read they might be less aggressive w margin calls and would give ample warning and time to address it if needed instead of just quickly selling your assets to cover.

We get close to itemizing with property taxes and charitable donations, but $30-40k of HELOC interest would push us into itemized, easily.

I dont think HELOCs have a locked rate. At least my HELOC rate adjusts every quarter.