I know a guy that got a low variable rate loan to lower his monthly payments and restablish his bad credit but when he went to refi that loan do to the rate/payments going up there was less value in the home than before to be able to refi so he taped into his assets checking/savings accounts stocks bonds retirement funds etc for home improvements to get the homes value back up so he wouldnt have to come in with closing costs that he didnt have at the time for the new refi but before he started the home improvements pool,deck new roof and an addition etc he took the current balance and divided it by the present conservative value and he said as long as it wasnt over 85% then he would qualify for the new refi and it worked he was verry happy about the decision that he had made .