Tuesday, November 24, 2009

How To Upgrade Your Home On A Budget

By Chris Dawson

Since the housing crash a lot of people have found themselves in homes that don't have any equity built up, meaning they have no easy way to pay for the home remodeling projects they planned when they first moved into their homes. Though selling a home and moving can be expensive, it can be just as costly to upgrade an existing home in many cases due to the high cost of construction materials and labor.

Most big home improvement projects are expensive enough that it's difficult to save up all the money you need all at once. By the same token, home improvements have become much more involved and complex and often entail completely changing a room rather than just applying a little paint and moving around some furniture. Here are three ways you can make a home improvement more affordable:

Do Little Bits of the Project At A Time: A lot of home improvement projects are really a bunch of smaller tasks all put together. When you remodel a kitchen you're really replacing floors, replacing cabinets, replacing applians and so forth. Instead of putting out the full amount of money all at once, why not upgrade one aspect of your kitchen each year so that the cost is spread out over multiple years.

Hardware Store Credit Cards: A lot of home improvement stores such as Lowe's and The Home Depot offer low interest rate credit cards with zero interest or no payments for a limited amount of time. If you're able to buy all the materials from one of these stores with a credit card you may be able to spead the costs of the home improvement out over many payments, making it much more affordable.

Work On Your Home Yourself: Completing a home improvement by yourself is a great way to build your confidence, feel a sense of pride in your home and save yourself a ton of money! It's estimated that 50% of any home improvement project pay for labor, so you could definitely save yourself some serious money if you chose to complete the project yourself. Be sensible: only do work that you're comfortable doing. There's no sense in doing something dangerous or potentially harmful to your home just to save a few dollars.

Improving your home is a great way to increase your home's value, make yourself feel good about where you live and even give you a sense of renewed pride and hope. Paying for a home improvement doesn't have to be painful if you have a plan and you're smart with your money. Using some of these money-saving home improvement financing methods will help you turn your house into a dream home in no time! - 30462

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