How to Finance That Home Renovation You’ve Always Wanted

Photo Credit: Pexels

Most homeowners have a few ideas in mind for projects that could improve their homes and its value. These ideas might be anything from new hardwood floors, to significant landscaping endeavors, to entire rooms built onto the home as additions. Whatever it may be though, a lot of homeowners ultimately put off projects like these because of financing concerns. A home renovation or improvement of this nature can be quite expensive, and it can be hard to really prioritize the budgeting needed to make it happen.

In this post we will be exploring a few options that could help you finance that home renovation you’ve always wanted.

1. Quotes

Getting multiple quotes for any home renovation project should always be your first step in attempting to minimize the costs. When we looked at how to reduce costs for flooring, this is something we focused on, specifically by illustrating the difference between three quotes. In that example, comparing quotes provided a more accurate picture of what the most reasonable costs ought to look like. You’re not guaranteed to see significant differences when you try this for your own renovation, but it’s always worthwhile to check.

2. Consider Doing It Yourself (DIY)

Another aspect of our look at financing a hardwood flooring project was consideration of a DIY approach. Naturally, whether or not you can take such an approach depends largely on the specific project at hand, and your own savvy with construction, decorating, and so on. Generally speaking, there are some home improvement projects better suited for DIY than others. But if you’re generally handy, or you’re good at learning on the job, DIY can save you a lot of money on labor costs. The materials will still add up, and you’ll be spending your own time on the job — but without labour costs, the financing gets a lot easier.

3. Secure a Home Improvement Loan

Getting multiple quotes and looking into DIY are really about reducing potential costs. When it comes to actually financing the project though, one of the most popular and logical options is to secure a home improvement loan. This is essentially an unsecured loan you can use for home improvements, and which you apply for on the basis of your credit worthiness. Another option is a home equity loan, which can serve a similar purpose, but for which your own equity in your home is put up as collateral. Many ultimately find a home improvement loan to be preferable because of this difference — particularly new homeowners who may not have much equity yet to begin with. Ultimately, a home improvement loan is a strategic means of getting money now for your renovation project without functionally giving anything up for it, and then spreading out the cost in the form of instalments that pay off the loan over time.

4. Explore Your Credit Card Options

Paying for a home renovation with a credit card isn’t always a good idea. However, there are some cards and some offerings that people ultimately find intriguing — often because points and rewards can help to offset costs. So, for example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has been well known at times for offering a significant point bonus that amounts to some $500 cash back for users that spend $4,000 in their first three months with the card. So, in theory, if you had a $4,000 renovation and paid for it with the card, your points would ultimately get you $500 back, such that the renovation would only have set you back $3,500.

5. Boost Your Savings

Sometimes we can almost get too caught up in looking for ways to manage budgets or finance projects, when in the end what helps most is saving. It’s easier said than done, but you can always find helpful savings tips — from separating “wants” from “needs” to changing some day-to-day habits, and so on — that will ultimately help you set a lot of money aside. Even scraping together $100 a month that you would ordinarily spend on other things can go a long way toward covering the costs of a home renovation, particularly if you’re able to pay off the job over time.

Hopefully these tips get you a few steps closer to pulling off that home renovation you’ve always wanted. In the end, most of these projects can still be fairly costly. But with the right strategic approach, you can minimize and manage costs in a way that allows you to piece your dream home together.

About The Author

Ashley Marks

Ashley Marks is a blogger with a passion for renovating property. One aspect she likes to focus on is the financial side of renovating, and she hopes her blog posts can help readers avoid the common financial pitfalls of changing their property for the better. When she isn’t writing, she can be found spending time with her husband and two children.