Combine RV loan and home mortgage?

[Derekb]

We are looking into a home mortgage refi and wonder if it is possible to add the RV loan into the deal.
Anyone done this? Pros/cons?
Thanks.

[twinboat]

If you have enough equity in the house to cover the RV balance, thats easy.

If your hoping to combine the RV as home equity, to borrow against, most likely not.

Homes are supposed to hold or appreciate in value. Not true of most vehicles.

[Mknmike]

If you are able to find a lender to do it for you, you are likely to be overpaying for your home loan interest. As stated above, use the equity in your home to pay off the RV if you can. You always want to keep the LTV below 80%, and often 70% to get the best possible rates. With the $24,000 standard deduction for married filing jointly, it’s hard to have your home loan interest deductible. So smart money says to pay it (and any vehicles) off because it’s not deductible. Now business loan interest is a different story. Is your home perhaps a rental property? If you use it for your own purposes less than 2 weeks a year and rent it out the rest, it could potentially be a rental property and the interest would be deductible on a schedule E. Can you use the loan money to pay off an RV? I would guess that’s a question for your accountant... unless your RV is a vehicle used solely for the purposes of maintaining your rental properties. Hmm...

[twogypsies]

Why would you want to be paying on your RV for 20-30 years?

[Ray,IN]

We did that, bought MH thru their finance co. then did the re-fi to pay-off that loan. After the paperwork went through we doubled our house payments to pay down the RV cost part. That went so well we continued the practice. BTW, the re-fi rate was 3%.


This takes a lot of forethought, pre-planning, self-control and will power, otherwise losing your house is a real posibility.

[We Be Gone]

We did not have a home mortgage so we took out a home mortgage and paid for a new Phaeton 40AH DP. There were no appraisals, fees, or other useless things to pay. It took just a few days and got 3.5% last year. We set it up on ten years but are paying ahead to make it total 5-6 years. May a new Allegro Bus soon after. Good Luck

[Dutch Star Don]

Typically, it's never a good idea to finance a boat or RV into a home loan, as you'll be paying on the RV long after it's gone. With that said, these are extraordinary times with home loans at 2.3%, you can save a lot of interest on a higher percentage RV loan, by financing it into the house. Just be disciplined and use that saving to pay down the principal.

[Mknmike]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Typically, it's never a good idea to finance a boat or RV into a home loan, as you'll be paying on the RV long after it's gone. With that said, these are extraordinary times with home loans at 2.3%, you can save a lot of interest on a higher percentage RV loan, by financing it into the house. Just be disciplined and use that saving to pay down the principal.

Debt is debt, and money is money. You can also take a loan out on your house to pay for your kids school too. You will be paying for it long after the kids are out of school or possibly even talking to you. :-)

If you are willing to leverage your home to pay for something you want, and you can, and it provides a better rate, and maybe even a tax deduction, have at it. It is probably always better than taking out an RV loan that will surely have a higher interest rate and an shorter term than a home loan. Keep in mind that the insurance requirement is on what you have a loan on, in order to assure there’s something for the bank to repossess. Don’t assume that if you don’t insure your RV and set it on fire that your homeowners insurance is going to cover it. You could be paying for that RV LONG after it’s gone if you go down that route.

[glwinger]

Our home is paid off. We took a Home Equity line of credit to do other major purchases. One was our travel trailer. The interest rate is way below a regular personal loan and no penalty for paying it off early.

[Mark_K5LXP]

I had a HELOC I used for a S&B remodel a while back, and when the RV deal came along it was a simple matter to write a check. So technically it was a home loan but not a long term mortgage refi.


Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[Unplanned Tourist]

I always used to tell my mechanics to NEVER borrow money to buy toys!

That said, a RV can be a rather large cost toy!

We didn't have a mortgage, so our investment guru suggested borrowing against our house to invest. It has worked out VERY well for us! We have made enough to pay off the mortgage any time we like, but the interest is so much lower than we are getting on the investments, we only pay the interest. (tax deductable BTW). I did say our guy is a guru, didn't I?

That said, I would suggest you think of a RV as a form of entertainment, and just write it off.

We did save up money in a special joint account we called the "RV" account. It took years, but we wrote a cheque for both of our MH's. And that's a good feeling.

[Spdracr39]

I have used a heloc to buy things three different times and always paid it off early. That money was always available when i needed it for emergencies and I took advantage of that several times also. The key is having a plan to get it paid for as quickly as possible so your exposure is limited.

[Mknmike]

In 2008 the bank decided to close our HELOC. Fortunately we were given some warning. So I maxed it out taking all the cash I could. I don’t know that that’s a requirement for the banks to do. I just know that relying on my new HELOC for “savings” (which is much larger now) is not foolproof.

[wannaclassc]

Originally Posted by twogypsies

Why would you want to be paying on your RV for 20-30 years?

Financially, how long you pay for it is immaterial. A financial flow s the same as capital. From a practical standpoint, they can likely write off the mortgage interest.