HomeBlogPersonal FinancePay Off Student Loans With Home Equity in St. Louis Share on Like what you see? Share with a friend. Pay Off Student Loans With Home Equity in St. Louis Chris Kirshenboim | November 3, 2021 Last updated August 10, 2026 Homeowners who want to pay off student loans with home equity usually have three routes in front of them. A home equity loan or line of credit borrows against the house and leaves you owning it. A cash-out refinance replaces the mortgage with a larger one, which only makes sense if the new rate is close to the old one. Or you sell house to pay off student loans outright and start clean, which is the route people consider when the payment is the problem rather than the balance. The tradeoff is the same in all three: student debt is unsecured, and a mortgage is not. Moving a student loan balance onto the house converts a debt that can be deferred, restructured, or in some cases forgiven into one where the lender can foreclose. Federal loans in particular carry protections that vanish the moment the balance moves. Talk to someone who does this for a living before you decide, because the right answer depends on your rate, your term, and what forgiveness programs you may qualify for. If selling is the route that fits, you have options beyond a listing. Chris and the team buy St. Louis houses as-is, rated 4.9 across 368 Google reviews, BBB A+ accredited, from an office in Webster Groves. Look at how we buy houses, and if retirement rather than tuition is the pressure, the same math applies when you boost your retirement fund. Stick to the Plan If you can afford the original repayment plan, do it! Most student loan repayment periods are 10 years. If you try to lower your payment or refinance, this could add another 20-25 years of repayment! 10 years doesn’t sound very quick in general, but it is way faster than 30 years! You may also want to consider making biweekly payments. You will end up paying an extra month every year which will shave off extra interest and time of repayment. Take on a Second Job Another way to quickly pay off your student loans is to take on a second job. Since your current job can cover all of the necessities now, your second job income can go straight to your student loan balance. You may lose some of your spare time, but just think of your financial freedom! Apply at least half or ideally all of that money to your student loan balance to speed up repayment. Make sure you communicate with your lender that you want the money applied to the principal so they don’t apply it to the next payment instead. This will also lower the overall interest paid of your loan since you are taking big chunks out of the balance. If you do not want to commit to a second job with a schedule, you could pick up side gigs. There are online bulletin boards where people can post random odd jobs they need help with and you can put that extra cash straight towards your balance. This will be a lot of work, but the benefits would be nice. Sell Your Extra Stuff Take advantage of online yard sale type apps and list your extra stuff for sale. Go through your closets and get rid of unneeded clothing or collectible items that may be worth some extra money. Maybe consider selling your car to get a more affordable one with better gas mileage or refinancing your current auto loan to have a lower payment each month. You could also hold garage sales as often as your community allows and ask friends and family for their unwanted belongings to add to your sale. Sell Your House If you are a homeowner in St. Louis, the easiest and quickest way to pay off your student loans with a big chunk of money is to sell your house! You may even be able to negotiate the buyer paying a majority of the fees to have more money to put towards your balance. Take into consideration downsizing now to pay off those student loans and have more money for the future. You can also take advantage of the low-interest rates when you are looking for a loan for your new home. You can put thousands of dollars towards your student loans, or hopefully, pay off the balance in full, and find a different house to live in and save extra money with the lower interest rates on mortgages. You will also save in some unexpected places, like the electric and water bill and the actual time it takes to clean your house. You might be able to find a smaller, more energy-efficient home closer to your work and save you time and gas money every day! Call Chris Buys Homes in St. Louis at (314) 334-1481 or send us a message today to discuss how to quickly pay off your student loans if you are a homeowner in St. Louis. FAQs Frequently Asked Questions Is it smart to pay off student loans with a home equity loan? + It can lower the interest rate, but it trades unsecured debt for debt secured by your house. Federal borrowers also give up income-driven plans and forgiveness options, which is often the larger loss. How much equity do I need before a lender will consider it? + Most lenders want you to keep fifteen to twenty percent of the home's value after the new loan. In practice that means an older St. Louis house with a small remaining mortgage qualifies more easily than a recent purchase. Does selling the house hurt my credit if the loans get paid off? + Paying off a student loan balance in full does not damage your credit, though closing an old account can shift the average age of your accounts slightly. Missing payments while you decide does far more harm. What if the house needs repairs I cannot afford right now? + That is common when money is already going toward loan payments. An as-is sale skips the repairs entirely, since the offer reflects the condition and no contractor work is required from you.
