This Old House: Here's How to Finance Your Remodel
“Shopping for home remodel loans can be as challenging as house hunting.”
Financing a remodeling project doesn't have to be a crapshoot. Here's a game plan for choosing the best deal.
By Sid Davis | full article
Until recently, borrowing money for a new kitchen, second-story addition, or other home improvement meant going to the bank, seeing a loan officer, and hoping for the best. Today, however, you have many more options to help finance home improvements. A mortgage broker, for example, can offer more than 200 different loan programs. And brokers are just one of the many lenders eager to put together a loan that fits your situation—even if your credit history is less than perfect.
That means you might be able to borrow more money than you think. But with so many competing lenders, loan options, and terms, it also means shopping for home remodel loans can be as challenging as house hunting. You can skip all the confusion and land on the right lending program by:
Knowing how much money you need and roughly how much you can get from the start
Narrowing the myriad loan options down to the ones that match your needs and finances
Concentrating on the lenders that are likeliest to provide the type of loan you want.