Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ways To Pay For a Big Home Improvement Project

By Chris Dawson

With the housing market still suffering across the country, a lot of people are choosing to upgrade their homes instead of moving out. Improving the house you live in is often much cheaper than trying to find a new one, but there are still some significant costs involved with many different larger home improvement projects.

A lot of home upgrade projects are simply too expensive for anyone to pay for all at once without some financial assistance. Most home improvement projects these days can cost thousands of dollars and take weeks, if not months, to complete. Here, then, are some ways you can reduce the initial cost of large home improvement projects and make your home upgrade more affordable:

Do A Little At A Time: Let's face it, some big projects don't have to be done all at once. A lot of times you can have parts of the project done over a couple years to defray costs. One year you may put up walls in your basement. The next year you may finish up the floors and the year after that you might choose to put in a wood burning stove and a few extra windows. Almost any large home improvement project can be broken into smaller, more affordable, jobs.

Zero Interest Hardware Store Credit Cards: You can actually take out a small home improvement loan by using a credit card offered by some of the larger home improvement stores. These stores usually offer great interest rates and special deals on materials and even contractor services if you use their cards, so you can save some real money with them over the long run.

Do The Work 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 house 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!

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