The Best Ways To Utilize a Personal Loan for Home Improvement

Being a homeowner can be great, but it can also be stressful, knowing that you are responsible for making home improvements. Whether you are living in an old house in dire need of some fixing up or trying to upgrade your home to help increase its value, the one thing you are probably thinking a lot about is the expenses.

If you are concerned about being able to financially cover your next home improvement project, you have several options you could consider. You could save money until you can afford it out of pocket, but that may not work if you need to make home improvements now.

You could skip the contractor, but even if you are going to do it DIY-style, you may still need a more financially conscious way of paying for it. If you considered taking out a personal loan, you could get the money to make the payment now and pay off the loans over a longer period of time.

Personal loans for home improvement projects can be a great way to make projects more affordable and less stressful for you, especially if you aren’t able to fork out a huge chunk of change all at once.

If you’re curious about home improvements, the costs of home improvements, and how a personal loan could help you work toward flipping that house to the home of your dreams, keep reading.

Personal Loans for Home Improvements

If potential home improvements seem like nothing more than an impossible dream, you can take a breath. There is still hope, and your dream home could be just a home improvement loan away. Though many lenders do not actually offer loans called home improvement loans, they will likely offer you the option to take out a personal loan instead.

An online personal loan is a loan that allows you to borrow money for personal reasons. In other words, you can use personal loans for many things, like paying off credit cards, paying overdue bills, and making unexpected repairs to your house or car. Many lenders will even allow you to list home improvements as your reason for taking out a personal loan.

Personal loans are often considered long-term loans as they are meant to be paid off over a specified number of years, usually 10–15 years.

When you take out a personal loan, you sign an agreement with the lender to make regular payments with a minimum monthly amount until the loan is paid off. Most personal loans also come with some interest, which is added to the amount still owed until the loan is paid off in full.

If you plan to make major home improvements, like replacing a roof or refinishing a basement, you can take out a loan to pay for the project all at once. Then, you will benefit from making significantly smaller monthly payments rather than paying for it all at once. This means you can make your home improvements sooner rather than later.

If you are considering taking out a personal loan for home improvements, here are some of the benefits a personal loan can offer you:

No Collateral Required

One of the best parts about personal loans for home improvements is that you do not have to put up anything like your home or your car for collateral. Collateral refers to personal belongings of value that would be repossessed or taken if you fail to make payments. However, personal loans do not require you to have anything for collateral.

Quick Money

Personal loans for home improvements are great, especially if you have an emergency situation like the leaky roof that was mentioned before. The whole application and approval process usually takes only a few hours but can take a day or two, depending on the bank.

Some banks even allow you to start the application process online. Then, you schedule an appointment to meet with a lender in person to finish the process. Personal loans allow you to get the money you need quickly.

Improved Credit Score

One of the great things about taking out a loan of any kind is that if you make all of your monthly payments on time, over time, it can actually help to improve your credit score. As you make your loan payments, you show the lenders that you do not present a risk that may cause them to lose money in the future.

If you are looking for ways to improve your credit score, you should consider using your home improvements as an opportunity to do so. You can save money in the short term while improving your overall credit score in the long term.

Home Improvements Personal Loans Can Cover

There are two primary reasons why people decide to make home improvements. Either the house is falling apart, like a leaky roof that is causing a mold problem, or they want to try to increase the resell value of their house by doing things like repainting or installing new hardwood floors.

With this in mind, upgrades can range from something as small as replacing the bathroom fixtures to something as large as knocking down walls to open up the floor plan. One of the many benefits of home improvement loans is their unlimited use.

If you apply for a loan to remodel your bathroom and you have money left over, you could use it to pay off your credit card or buy paint for your bedroom. Though you may apply for a personal loan for the purpose of making home improvements, if you have money left over or you need to use the money for something else, you can. No questions asked.

Here are some of the top home improvements you may want to consider, whether as a necessity for repairs or a desire to make your house a better home.

Replacing the Roof

Most roofs come with a 15-to-20-year warranty. That means if you live in a house built before the turn of the century, it is probably time to replace your roof. Though good quality shingles can last longer, if you want to avoid other potentially unwanted expenses like repairing water damage caused by a leaky roof, you may want to consider this as your next home improvement.

However, a new roof is likely to run you up to $10,000 if you hire a contractor, and this can be an intimidating number, especially if payment plans are not an option. But when a roof needs to be replaced, it must be replaced.

Finishing the Basement

Finishing the basement is a great home improvement that can help you get much more money when selling your house. Plus, even if you aren’t looking to sell, who doesn’t want extra space for entertainment, a home gym, or the office you have dreamed of for years?

Depending on the size of your basement and how fancy or high-tech you want to make it, you could spend anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars if you choose to go all out. That is a lot of money, even if paid overtime, but a finished basement has many perks.

Opening the Floor Plan

Open floor plans are basically a style of home where there aren’t a lot of individual, closed-off rooms besides the bedrooms and bathrooms. Usually, open floor plans mean that the kitchen, dining room, living room, and even entryway flow smoothly.

Converting a home from a closed floor plan to an open one allows the house to feel cozier with better natural lighting and flow, but the process usually requires knocking down walls and building new ones. It is certainly a bigger home improvement option and can cost upwards of $40,000 to $50,000, depending on the extent of the work needed. But, open floor plans are extremely desirable.

Repainting

A fresh coat of paint goes a long way, especially if you want to sell your house. If you are considering repainting to sell, consider neutral colors. If you’re not planning on going anywhere, a new paint job can spice things up a bit and bring back that new home smell that your home hasn’t had in a while.

Depending on whether you hire a painter or do it yourself and the type and quality of the paint, most interior paint jobs cost between $8,000 and $10,000, and an exterior paint job usually costs around $3,000. You could paint one room at a time to lessen the upfront cost, but that would greatly extend the time for home improvements.

Remodeling the Kitchen

Old, dirty cabinets, outdated appliances, and countertops that have seen drastically better days are fantastic reasons to remodel your kitchen. An updated kitchen can add to your home’s resale value. Unfortunately, countertops alone can cost you over $1,000. When you start talking about a complete kitchen remodel, you are looking at a minimum of $12,000 to $15,000.

If you have a super small kitchen, you could get away with remodeling for less than $5,000, but you would likely have less updated appliances and potentially lower-quality materials. The reality is that even just a new backsplash can go a long way toward making a kitchen look new, but you need to consider the long-term investment and how much you want to spend on remodeling.

Replacing Carpet with Different Flooring

Carpets in the bedroom can be great if they are well taken care of, but if you find your house still rocking its original shag carpet from the 1970s, it’s time for an upgrade. The problem with carpet is that if it is not properly cleaned, it is a breeding ground for mites and mold, and for people with dust allergies, carpet can feel like a death sentence.

If you are a huge fan of carpets, you can still choose to upgrade your carpets to something more modern. If you are ready to try different flooring types, you can explore things like hardwood, linoleum, and tile. Each of these comes with a different price tag and can range from less than $1 per square foot to more than $10 per square foot.

Prices will fluctuate depending on your material of choice, with linoleum tending to be the cheapest option and tile and hardwood floors being more expensive.

Replacing Toilets for Improved Water Usage

If you want to make home improvements for the future, low-flow toilets are definitely something to consider. Low-flow toilets essentially use less water or allow you to choose more or less water each time you flush the toilet.

Though low-flow toilets can be a bit more expensive when you first buy them, the amount of money you can save on your water bill each month is a plus. Not to mention the environmental impact you could make just by getting a new toilet or two.

You can get a basic low-flow toilet for around $120, and more expensive or higher-tech toilets can cost around $500, with many options in between to choose from. This is definitely one of the more inexpensive home improvements you could make while continuing to save money every time you flush.

Adding Better Landscaping Features

Curb appeal is a real thing. You can have a nice, beautiful new room, gorgeous new siding, and pristine shutters on your house, but if you’ve got a yard full of weeds and brown grass, your curb appeal and overall resale value of your house will still suffer.

You would be amazed at how much of a difference planting some grass seed, power washing your driveway, and fixing up a few flower beds can do for curb appeal.

Depending on the size of your yard and the amount of work needed to spruce it up a bit, you could be looking at spending anywhere from $500 for DIY grass seed and flower beds to $20,000 for new trees, flower beds, and sculptures—the works.

Though you probably aren’t looking to have custom-cut topiaries lining your driveway, if you want to really make your yard pop, you will need to spend a bit of money to make it happen.

Cleaning or Replacing Gutters

Even if you do not have tree branches hanging over your gutters that cause leaves to collect in them, they still get gunk built up in them over time, simply from being outside and having water pass through them regularly. Exposure to the sun and other types of weather also causes gutters to age, eventually needing to be replaced.

If your gutters aren’t that old, you may very easily be able to get away with simply cleaning them really well yourself. However, if you need a new set of gutters, you will probably have to drop at least $900—$1,500, depending on the size of your house and the type of gutters you decide to invest in.

Are Personal Loans for Home Improvements for You?

In the end, the decision to apply for a personal loan or not is up to you. If you want to make home improvements, whether you can afford to pay it out of pocket at this time or not is only one of many things to consider.

The cost of your home improvement plans, the amount of time you would need to pay off the loan, and how you would use your personal loan funds are all things to consider. In the end, there are great benefits to getting a personal loan to help cover the cost of home improvement projects.

Whether you plan to do them in small stages or make bigger renovations all at once, personal loans can go a long way in helping to cut down on the financial strain that home improvements may cause.

Apply Now 

The process is pretty simple if you’re ready to apply for a personal loan for home improvements. All you have to do is make an appointment with your lender, complete the application process, find terms and rates that you agree with, and wait for approval. Once you get approved for a personal loan, you will usually get the money within 24 hours.

Don’t forget to collect some personal information before applying so that you can move quickly through the application process. Most lenders will want to know about your personal information, your annual income, any loans you've taken out in the last 3 to 6 months, the amount of money you want to borrow, and how much you already have in your bank account.

With Simple Fast Loans, you can apply online and receive approval within minutes. Your funds are deposited by the next business day. If you have any questions about your loan, our customer service representatives are here to help.

Conclusion

Whether you are working towards the home of your dreams or you’re trying to flip a rundown house for extra cash, using a personal home to make home improvements could be a great option. There are many pros, like improved credit and quickly getting the money you need.

On the other hand, you need to make sure you understand the cons as well, such as the long-term commitment you are making when it comes to fixed monthly payments and the fact that you will pay more in the end than paying for everything in cash upfront.

Before you commit, consider your options, and don’t give up on having the home of your dreams one day.