This is a question from someone I know going through a tough time, maybe someone here can help:

My wife and I are in the middle of adopting from overseas, which is quite costly. All the financial benefits come at the end of the process, tax credit, employer reimbursements, etc. We are looking into ways to come up with the $$$ on the front side. So there is the background, here is my question:

We bought our house 5 years ago and it appraised for $70K. It needed lots of work including all new paint, flooring, and general remodeling. We have since most of that including all new flooring and painting. There are still some small items that need to be done that I have not got around to. We paid $62K for it. Now that the remodeling and refurbishing has been done, it should appraise for more. Since we were newly married, we opted for the 30 yr mortgage at the time, so we have not made much ground on equity. I would say we owe around $59k now. Here is the moral of the story, what would I need to do to refinance and borrow at what it should appraise at now to (1) shorten the term to 20 yrs (2) borrow the $$$ needed for the adoption? What should I expect in closing costs, appraisal fees, etc?

Also, one of our neighbors, whose house is smaller, older and in need of general refurbishing (but she has 2 more acres than us) home just appraised at $90K and she is trying to sell for $135K.

What advice, options, opinions do you have to offer?

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