I’m so stressed and not really sure what my options are.

When I was 20 I inherited money and it had to be used to purchase a property. I got extremely lucky and was able to use $200k to purchase a home in 2011 that is now worth $700k. In 2017 I took $150k out to pay for college and I felt good about that. I have 3 college degree and make around 90k before taxes. During Covid I took out 100k but lowered my rate for around 7 something to a 3.4!! I got so lucky and felt like I was finally making good financial decisions, no one in my life has ever helped me learn about finances, and I really have always struggled with being responsible with my money. I was going to use that $100k to pay off some of my bills and start a business with some of my cousins. Horrible idea, all the money is gone and I raked up around 100k in debt.

I have around $350k equity left that I can still take out of my property before I reach 80%. But the thing is I cannot get approved for a cash out refinance. I’m in a pretty sucky situation because while as of right now, I am not behind on anything, in the next two months if I don’t get approved and take cash out, I will start falling behind on all my bills.

Right now my credit score is 640. I actually spend last month pinching and scraping up every penny that I could, and pay down some of my credit cards. I went from a 620 to a 640. I thought I would be fine but every bank I talk to wants me to have money/reserves, 6 months worth. That’s like $20k! I probably wouldn’t be financing if I had a casual $20k lying around!

Is there anything I can do to get around this reserve requirement? It’s crazy to me that I have so much equity in my home but I can’t use it! The thought of falling behind on my credit cards while I have hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity in my home is mind boggling!! I even thought of selling but that capital gains tax is just insane. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I realize I did not mention this is an investment property, not a home where I live. This is an assets.