Home Property A How-To Guide for Raising Your Home’s Value: How You Can Fund...

A How-To Guide for Raising Your Home’s Value: How You Can Fund Home Improvements

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You love your home, your family loves your home, but is it looking past its best, and is it holding value, or is it losing money? As your home is one of the biggest investments you will make in life, it is important that you manage it as well as possible. To manage your home, you must focus on increasing its value – as and where you can. When you increase its value, you have the potential to create a nice nest egg for yourself and your family. So, to raise the value of your home what improvements should be made and how are you going to fund these improvements?

What Improvements Will Add Value

Bathrooms and kitchens not only sell homes, but they add value too. Clean, bright, and light bathrooms and kitchens are inviting and they are welcoming. If a kitchen is outdated you will find that it lets down the whole house. Similarly, if a bathroom is a dark shade of brown or avocado, you will see a few thousand easily knocked off the value of your home. Adding space and renovating key areas within your home is going to add value, and it is going to increase saleability in the future (should this be something that you wish to pursue).

How Much Money Do You Need

Once you have established what improvements and works you are going to do on your home, you then have to establish what budget you need. How much money do you need to successfully complete all of the projects that you want? Do you need a contingency fund in place? You should not start carrying out any home improvement works without first establishing a budget, because this could be disastrous. It could mean that you end up spending more than you want to, and this will taint the renovations and improvements that you carry out.

Funding Options – What is Right for You?

When you are looking at funding your improvements, you need to look at the funding options available to you, and you need to look at affordability too. You do not want to be borrowing more than you can afford to pay back. Similarly, you do not want to be paying a higher interest rate on any borrowing that you do, as this will impact the value you add to your home, and it will leave you in an unstable position too. So, what options are right for you? How long will you require the funding for, and have you got any collateral upfront you can use to secure funding?

Equity Release – Is it Necessary

When large-scale improvements and renovations are being carried out to your home, you may well look at equity release. However, is this necessary? Equity release can be disastrous, it will increase your monthly mortgage payments, and it may be an expensive way to borrow money. With equity release, you may find that you release more money than your home is actually worth, and this may affect you if you come to sell your home. It could mean you end up out of pocket after all – and this is certainly not what you want. Weighing up the pros and cons of equity release, and looking at hidden costs, will help you establish if this option is even necessary.

Loans and Borrowing

High street banks can be turned to for borrowing and lending, however, are they always the best and only option, and are they truly competitive? There are other avenues that you can pursue loans and borrowing, and you may find that they are better suited to you, and to your circumstances. For example, Logbook Loans from Car Cash Point may be suitable for you, especially if you have a family car for use as collateral. Finding the right borrowing options for you, and your family, is important, and you should take time to weigh up interest rates and affordability before making a commitment.

Family and Friends

Getting support from family and friends is crucial when you are looking at improving and renovating your home to increase its value. Reaching out to family and friends for guidance, and even looking at the skills they can contribute to your project is something that you may take into account. If you are reaching out to family and friends for financial aid or support, you have to be very clear on how much you are borrowing, and for what. Unclear lines of communication between family, friends, and finances can cause rifts, and of course, this is not what you need or want.

Having a Renovation Plan

Even when you have your funding in place for your home improvements, you then have to narrow down what you will do, and when. You do not want to try and tackle too many projects at once (even if your to-do list is long) as this will cause you unnecessary stress and pressure. Instead, you want to focus on doing one improvement or renovation at a time. This way you can get the area or room how you want it, before moving on to the next project. A renovation plan will give you structure for your plans and your ideas, and it will help bring your visions and ideas to life.

Claire James