Friday, January 11, 2008

Home Improvement Loan - The Easiest And Cheapest Way To Make Improvements To Your Home And Much More

By Rakesh Sharma

Home improvement loan, as classified by the reporting institution, is a loan made to a property owner for home improvements, such as maintenance and repair, additions and alterations, or replacement of existing equipment or any other structural elements in the home.

So, if you are thinking about improving the existing home, home improvement loan is the best idea for the purpose of improving your existing home. A home improvement loan is not only the easiest and cheapest way to make improvements to your home, but there are various other benefits also, such as this loan can be repaid over any term between 5 and 25 years.

It all depends on your available income and the amount of equity in the property that is to provide the security for the loan. There are combined efforts from every level including government, non-profit and other aid organizations to help homeowners.

For example, the Section 203(k) program is the Department's primary program for the rehabilitation and repair of single-family properties. According to this section, the borrower can get just one mortgage loan, at a long-term fixed or adjustable rate, to finance both the acquisition and the rehabilitation of the property.

According to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), to improve a multifamily structure, the maximum loan amount is $12,000 per family unit. But remember, it should not exceed a total of $60,000 for the structure. However, please note that these are fixed-rate loans, for which lenders charge interest at market rates and the interest rates are not subsidized by HUD. The good news in this regard is that there are some communities that voluntarily participate in local housing rehabilitation programs and they provide reduced-rate property improvement loans through various lenders. So better to contact them.

There are many financial institutions, banks and other independent lenders who can give you these loans. They are not easy to obtain, but there are many tax benefits also which are attached to home improvement loan. These benefits make the loan very attractive by lowering the effective interest rate by 2 to 4%. Therefore, if you are planning to undertake the repair, remodeling, extension of your house, home improvement loan can be your perfect choice.

However, it is always better to take advice of some professionals like an architect or a structural engineer for improvement or extension, because it is beyond the capacity of a normal person to calculate the actual cost.

Moreover, any structural change in the existing buildings and dwellings requires a clearance from the municipal authorities, so proper documentation is a must. Not only the lenders and banks may also require this, but such municipal authority clearance and documentations along with your structural map.

So, don’t be in haste to apply for the loan unless you know what kind of repairs you want to carry out. And always be prepared for a fair groundwork and shop around for better deals.

Rakesh Sharma “Jack” is a renowned copywriter, article writer and SEO expert based in India. He has written dozens of ebooks/how-to guides, hundreds of special reports and when it comes to small articles there can be a very few writers who have touch an unimaginary figure of 8000 articles. He frequently writes on real estate, finance, mortgage, debt consolidation and debt management along with other general topics of interest or as per the clients’ requirements. To know more about him and to use his services, visit: www.egzone.info.

If you wish to discuss some topic of your interest, visit his blog: www.egzone.info/blog.

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