July 18, 2008

home improvement loan

by James Redder

Adding an extra room in your loft or just carrying out routine maintenance on an aging property is expensive and will need financing; the easiest way to refresh a tired looking house is to arrange a home improvement loan. Very few people want to attempt many of these home improvements themselves so tradesmen such as electricians, plumbers and carpenters will need to be employed.

A home improvement loan is a borrowing option that is open to most homeowners and there’s a choice for you to take a secured loan or a loan with no equity required. When a homeowner has only just purchase the home, they are still able to arrange a loan, subject to their status of course. Finance organized to improve a home is normally arranged to run for up to fifteen years when equity is not required.

The only condition made on no equity finance is that the owners must have a joint income which is lower than the county limit where the property is but reaches the limit specified by the lender. Whilst the lenders do not hand over the money without making some checks first about the property and the applicant, these are just to provide some security for the lender as these loans are processed quite quickly.

The difference with a secured home improvement loan means the value of the property is taken into account so when there is spare equity, the loan is basically taken out of this. This type of loan is much quicker to organize and because the house is being used to secure the loan, it benefits from better terms and lower interest rates.

The lender will only provide funds for a secured loan based on the current equity available in your property. The lender will work with you in determining the value of your home based on its current value, amount of outstanding mortgage, and other debts that you currently have.

All these factors will be considered for putting a loan package together for your consideration. Normally a lender will lend to the upper limit of the house valuation but a few lenders go much further and provide loans up to 125 percent of the valuation.

When you arrange a loan this way, the lender has a claim on your home should you fail to meet payments, so only borrow judiciously and consider your ability to pay it back. When money from a home improvement loan becomes available, there’s a temptation to use it in other less essential areas but this can be a big mistake so remember why you decided to borrow in the first place.

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