Can I Use 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.

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.

Key Takeaways

• Personal loans can provide fast, unsecured financing for home upgrades, allowing you to pay for major repairs or renovations upfront and repay over time, without needing to use your home or car as collateral.
• Loan funds can be used flexibly, covering everything from roofing and basement finishing to cosmetic upgrades like painting or landscaping, with leftover funds often usable for other needs like credit card debt.
• Benefits include quick approval, no collateral, and potential credit score improvement, as long as payments are made on time, while drawbacks include interest costs and long-term repayment commitments.
• Before applying, compare loan terms, rates, and your repayment ability, and consider if breaking up your projects or saving for smaller improvements might be a better fit for your financial situation.

Can I Use a Personal Loan for Home Improvement?

Yes, in fact, a personal loan can be a smart way to fund home improvements in certain situations. Unlike home equity loans or HELOCs, a personal loan doesn’t require you to use your house as collateral, which can be appealing if you don’t want to risk your property or don’t have much equity built up yet.

It’s often a good idea to use a personal loan for home improvement when:

• You need funds quickly. Personal loans usually fund much faster than home equity products, sometimes within just a few days, which helps if your project can’t wait.

• Your project has a clear budget. If you know how much your renovation will cost — like installing new appliances or finishing a basement — the fixed loan amount and set repayment schedule can keep you on track.

• You don’t want to tap into home equity. For homeowners who prefer not to borrow against their house, a personal loan provides a straightforward financing option.

• You want predictable payments. With a fixed interest rate and term, you’ll know exactly how much you’ll pay each month until the loan is repaid, which makes budgeting easier.

In short, a personal loan can be a practical choice for medium-sized projects where speed, simplicity, and fixed payments matter most.

The Benefits of Using a Personal Loan for a Home Improvement Project

Personal loans can be a smart and flexible financing option for home improvement—especially for smaller renovations, urgent repairs, or situations where you need quick access to cash. Unlike home equity loans or HELOCs, most personal loans are unsecured, meaning you don’t have to use your home as collateral, which can be ideal if you have limited equity or prefer to keep your property risk-free.

With fast approvals, predictable repayment terms, and a wide range of uses, personal loans can help you:

• Cover smaller renovation projects with a defined budget, such as bathroom updates, new flooring, fresh paint, or landscaping.

• Pay for emergency repairs like a burst pipe or roof leak when time is critical.

• Finance energy-efficient upgrades such as replacing windows, installing solar panels, or upgrading appliances.

• Consolidate high-interest renovation debt into one fixed monthly payment with a potentially lower interest rate.

However, personal loans aren’t the right fit for every project. Consider:

• Shorter repayment terms can mean higher monthly payments.

• Borrowing limits may not cover large-scale remodels.

By comparing offers from multiple lenders and evaluating your budget carefully, you can determine if a personal loan is the right choice to fund your next home improvement project.

Can You Get a Bad Credit Personal Loan for Home Improvements?

If your credit score isn’t where you want it to be, you might assume that your chances of getting a personal loan for home improvements are slim. The good news is that even if you have bad credit, you may still have options. Lenders understand that life happens—medical emergencies, job losses, or unexpected expenses can throw even the most responsible person off course. That’s why many online lenders and alternative financial institutions now offer bad credit personal loans designed to help people with lower credit scores gain access to funds.

What Are Bad Credit Personal Loans?

Bad credit personal loans are loans offered to borrowers with low credit scores, typically below 580 on the FICO scale. These loans often come with higher interest rates or shorter repayment terms than traditional personal loans, but they can still be an effective way to finance home improvements, especially if time is a factor.

While traditional banks may turn down borrowers with less-than-perfect credit, many online lenders specialize in subprime lending and use other factors to determine eligibility. These can include your income level, employment status, and bank account history rather than just your credit score.

What to Watch Out For

While bad credit loans can be helpful, they do come with a few important caveats:

• Origination fees or penalties: Some lenders charge additional fees just to process the loan, or impose penalties if you repay early.
• Scams and predatory lenders: Be cautious of lenders who promise “guaranteed approval” or ask for upfront fees. Stick with reputable companies that clearly explain terms and conditions.

Tips for Getting Approved With Bad Credit

To improve your odds of approval and secure better terms, consider these steps:

• Apply with a co-signer: A co-signer with stronger credit may help you qualify for lower rates.
• Show proof of steady income: A stable income reassures lenders that you can handle monthly payments, even with poor credit.
• Borrow only what you need: Smaller loan amounts are easier to qualify for and repay.

Can a Bad Credit Loan Help Rebuild Credit?

Yes, just like standard personal loans, bad credit loans can help you rebuild your credit score over time. The key is to make on-time monthly payments. Many lenders report to major credit bureaus, so each on-time payment helps you prove your reliability and could lead to better loan options in the future.

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.

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.