This might sound strange, but bear with me. I recently went to buy a used Deere CUT. A credit union loan officer said that a tractor loan would be an unsecured personal loan (tractors don't have titles in this state*) at a fairly high interest rate, so that wasn't a good option.
However, I had my car loan from this same credit union almost paid off. It turns out I could refinance the car loan, borrowing up to the book value of the car minus what I still owed on it. So, they hang onto the car title for three additional years; I keep making a car payment each month for about the same amount I have been; and we plan to keep that car indefinitely anyway so it should work out OK.
So one option is to use a car as collateral as opposed to the house.
* = In PA as far as I know, although I hear they might in NJ.