It's Easy to Take Money out When You Refinance: Homeowners consider their houses like treasures, readily transforming their equity into cash and credit. You have home equity loans, home equity lines of credit and reverse mortgages. Then there's cash-out refinancing. One dangerous trap of all is the fact that you can easily take out built-up equity every time you refinance. Homeowners need to recognize that money borrowed is money that needs to be paid back eventually. Even if house prices go up forever, if you serially refinance, there comes a point in time when you have to sell your home to pay off your mortgage.