| Product | Conventional 15-year fixed, cash-out refinance |
| Property | Detached single-family home, primary residence · Georgia |
| Appraised value | About $180,000 |
| Loan amount | $126,000 (70% loan-to-value) |
| Note rate / APR | 6.625% / 7.522%, as closed on August 17, 2026 (fixed for the full term) |
| Term / amortization | 15 years / fully amortizing, 180 payments |
| Debts retired | First mortgage of about $71,000 at 4.5% (about 17 years remaining) and an auto loan of about $26,000 at roughly 17% (58 payments remaining) |
| Cash to borrower | About $19,500 |
| New monthly payment | About $1,356 including escrowed taxes and insurance (principal and interest about $1,106) |
| Previous monthly outlay | About $1,743 (mortgage with taxes and insurance about $1,045, plus $698 auto payment) |
| Borrower credit score | Around 580 |
| Capital | Arranged through a third-party capital provider |
A Georgia homeowner used a conventional 15-year cash-out refinance to retire a high-rate auto loan and pull cash out of a modest single-family home, at a credit score that ruled out a second mortgage.
The situation
The borrower owned a detached single-family primary residence in Georgia appraised at about $180,000. Two debts sat against the household budget: a first mortgage of roughly $71,000 at 4.5% with about 17 years left, and an auto loan of about $26,000 at roughly 17% with 58 payments remaining at $698 a month. Together the two payments ran about $1,743 a month. The homeowner wanted the car paid off and about $18,000 in cash. The credit score was around 580.
The challenge
The obvious objection was the one the referring party raised: paying off a 17% car loan is easy to justify, but doing it by giving up a 4.5% first mortgage and moving the whole balance to a higher rate looks expensive. The cleaner answer would have been to leave the 4.5% mortgage alone and add a fixed-rate second mortgage or home-equity loan for the car payoff and the cash. Stonehaven priced that structure first. At a credit score around 580, however, no second-lien or HELOC program available through the capital providers Stonehaven works with would take the file; those programs generally look for scores in the mid-600s or higher. That left a first-lien cash-out refinance as the only workable route.
The homeowner already held a quote from another lender for the same $126,000, 15-year conventional cash-out loan. Against what ultimately closed, that quote carried a note rate almost 0.9 percentage points higher, an APR about 0.6 points higher, roughly $10,500 in closing costs including about $2,400 in discount points, and an estimated total payment near $1,425 a month.
The structure
Stonehaven arranged a $126,000 conventional 15-year fixed cash-out refinance through a third-party capital provider at 70% loan-to-value: note rate 6.625% / APR 7.522%, as closed on August 17, 2026. Proceeds paid off the roughly $71,000 first mortgage and the roughly $26,000 auto loan, covered about $9,200 in closing costs (including a $1,000 initial escrow deposit and under $900 in discount points), and returned about $19,500 in cash to the borrower, slightly more than the $18,000 target. The new payment is about $1,356 a month including escrowed taxes and insurance.
Why it worked
Three things made the trade defensible. First, the "giving up 4.5%" concern is real but incomplete. The blended rate on the debt being retired, $71,000 at 4.5% and $26,000 at 17%, worked out to roughly 7.9%. A 6.625% fixed rate on the combined balance was below that blend, and the cash-out came at the same rate rather than at a second-lien premium. Second, the 15-year term kept the payoff horizon shorter than the 17 years remaining on the old mortgage, so the borrower did not trade a 58-month car schedule for a 30-year one. Third, monthly cash flow improved by roughly $385, from about $1,743 across two payments to about $1,356 on one. Compared with the competing quote, the closed loan came in about $70 a month lower and roughly $1,300 lower in estimated closing costs, with less than half the discount points.
What a similar borrower should know
A credit score below roughly 620 to 640 usually closes the door on second mortgages and HELOCs, which is why a first-lien cash-out refinance can be the only way to reach home equity even when the existing mortgage carries a low rate. When that is the case, compare the new rate with the blended rate of everything being paid off, not just with the old mortgage rate. Rolling an auto loan into a mortgage secures that debt against the home and stretches it across the mortgage term; choosing a shorter term, 15 years here, limits how much extra interest that costs. Finally, read the closing-cost detail and not just the rate: on the same loan amount and term, origination fees and discount points varied by thousands of dollars between the two quotes this borrower compared. The rate and terms described here were as closed on August 17, 2026, and are not a current offer.