Home Improvement Solution

Posts Tagged ‘Home Sellers’

The United States is deep into a housing slump which means that a lot of people are trying to sell their home but having a difficult time doing so. There are basically more homes for sale than there are home buyers right now, which means that home sellers have to lower their asking prices just to get people interested in their home. Lower home prices mean that people selling homes are not making as much of a profit off their home sale as they’d like.

If you are trying to sell your home right now and not having much success then you may want to consider ways of using a small home improvement loan to actually help you sell your current home and actually make a little more money than you might expect. This is not as difficult as it seems.

First, home sellers should look around their area to see what prices similar homes are selling for. This can be done by simply driving around the neighborhood and looking for home sale signs, but it is better to use several different real estate websites and look for homes for sale in your surrounding area. Real estate websites will not only give you the price of the other homes for sale, but many will also list key features and upgrades the home might have as well as offer interior and exterior photos of the home that may not be seen from a simple drive-by.

Now that you have a list of homes that are “competing” with your home that is for sale, it is time to start figuring out how you can improve your home without spending much money. Look at the other homes. Do many of them boast new windows, new carpeting or new roofs? Is their landscaping new and pleasing to potential buyers? What about an upgraded kitchen or extra half bathroom? How about simple interior decor items like crown molding, new baseboards or fresh paint?

Some of these home improvement projects are not very expensive to complete and can really make a big impression on prospective home buyers. This is where you may need to look into some sort of home improvement financing or small home improvement loan to complete your projects. A loan as small as a few thousand dollars could help you change your home enough to attract and win over a home buyer. Here are a few suggestions in different price ranges:

For $1,000 – $2,000: Consider updating the interior of the home you wish to sell with fresh neutral colored paint or new baseboards and crown molding. If you have wallpaper you may want to pay to have it removed and painted a general light color. Depending on the size of your yard you may also consider spending that money to have someone remove overgrown bushes and plants from your flower beds and put in smaller more manageable ones. Simply being able to advertise “crown molding” in a home sale ad will garner more attention than you normally would get with a regular listing.

For $2,000 – $5,000: Replacing worn flooring or carpeting is a good idea at this level. Simply having your carpets steam cleaned is a good start, but putting down new neutral colored rugs or tiling will go a long way to making a great first impression.

For $5,000 – $10,000: This is for larger home improvement projects that could really increase your return on investment. When people look to buy a home they really like updated kitchens and bathrooms. You don’t have to choose the most expensive materials for these, but you do want to choose neutral colors that many different people may like. Updating your kitchen with stainless steel appliances or replacing your counter tops with any sort of granite will definitely bring more buyers to look at your home.

How do you make extra money with this home improvement loan? For all of these improvements consider raising the asking price of your home by the amount you borrowed to improve it. You may even want to add on another 20%. If you had a home improvement loan of $10,000 you may want to increase your asking amount by $12,000 to account for the inevitable offer and counter-offer process that usually accompanies a home sale.

When you sell your home you’ll quickly be able to pay off your loan with the profit from the house sale. If you don’t sell your home right away you’ll still be able to enjoy the home upgrades until you do.

Many people are trying to sell their house right now and they’re finding that the market still favors home buyers over home sellers. In order to make your home more attractive to a potential buyer you may need to consider some small upgrades or home improvements to set it apart from the competition. Home improvements can not only help you sell your home but depending upon the upgrades you choose to perform they may actually help you get a higher selling price for your home.

In order to improve your home the way you should you’re going to need to set some money aside to really get the job done the right way. You could save some money on your home improvement projects by perfoming them yourself, but if you’re in a hurry to sell your home then you may want to consider hiring a professional.

There are several ways you can borrow the money needed for quick home improvements, but some methods of financing a big home improvement project are much easier than others. Here are some of the more common ways of paying for large home upgrades in order from easiest to most difficult to attain.

The easiest way to actually pay for a large home improvement project is to have the money on hand already. Not a lot of people have thousands of dollars hanging around but many people do have items they can sell to raise some money. You could sell old tools, a boat, a car or simply go through your basement and sell items online all to raise the money you need to pay for a home improvement project. Depending upon what you have to sell this could either be the easiest or most difficult way to finance a home improvement project.

Home improvement store credit cards are another way to pay for smaller home improvement projects, usually totally ten thousand dollars or less. Getting a credit card from a hardware store is usually not very difficult even if you have questionable credit. The problem with cards like this is that they can sometimes have high interest rates and high fees if you aren’t careful. To get a home improvement store credit card you usually just have to fill out a single form from the store.

You can also use the equity in your home to get a home improvement loan. You could take out a home equity line of credit, a home equity loan or even a second mortgage based on your needs. These types of financing are more difficult than a credit card to obtain and they’re dependent upon you having enough equity in your home to qualify for them. Most of these types of loans carry an initial fee of a couple hundred to several thousand dollars and there are usually closing costs and inspections to go through as well.

The most difficult type of loan to get for a home improvement project is probably a loan directly from a bank without putting anything up for collateral. To get a loan like this you’ll probably want to present the bank with detailed improvement plans, quotes from one or several contractors and proof of steady income. Different banks offer different types of home improvement loans and some may be more willing to work with you than others.

Generally, it is easier to pay for home improvement projects by selling things or having the cash on hand than it is to apply for any sort of home improvement loan. Home improvement credit cards are easy to obtain and good for small projects, home equity loans are good for larger projects if you have the equity in your home and straight bank loans are usually the most difficult loans to obtain for home improvement purposes.