Home improvement can be a great way to increase the pleasure that home life gives you. It’s also a powerful means of storing your wealth, since the right investment in your home can yield a substantial, even outsized uptick in the value of that home.
But sometimes, renovating can be a source of financial stress in the short term. Let’s take a look at how we might limit that stress through a handful of sensible measures.
Planning Your Renovation Budget
Before you start work, you’ll need an idea of how you’re going to spend your money. That means establishing a budget that’s clearly broken down into your various areas of spending. This will allow you to judge your spend as the project unfolds, and estimate the cost of each stage accurately.
Your budget should ideally include a pot of cash left to one side for unexpected costs. This will allow you to react during emergencies without having to resort to debt.
Financing Your Renovation: Options to Explore
If you want to renovate, you’ll have a few options to consider. The most obvious involves saving up enough money to make the renovation happen. But this might take years, during which time you won’t be able to enjoy the benefits. Another option might be to downsize to a smaller property and use the difference to renovate.
Secured loans, which use the property itself as collateral, are a popular source of finance for renovators. If you aren’t able to repay the loan, however, you might be at risk of the home being repossessed. As such, you’ll need to ensure that you can make the minimum payment each month.
Maximising Cost-Savings in Your Renovation
Some renovations are more costly than others. However, the quality of the renovation doesn’t always track tightly to the amount of money you spend.
To keep your costs down, you might take a DIY approach to certain tasks. Sourcing the materials, organising the labour, and decorating the new space might all be worthwhile, depending on your priorities. It’s also worth haggling with suppliers and contractors, in order to get the best possible deal at each stage. Obtaining three different quotes for each task might give you the best possible peace of mind.
How to Avoid Common Renovation Pitfalls
However diligently you plan your changes, there’s always a chance that something will go wrong. It’s worth paying special attention to mistakes that have already been made. Among the most common of these are a failure to budget properly, and choosing the wrong contractors.
Make sure that you vet each of your contractors thoroughly, and that you don’t pay for any labour until the job is completed. Put together a timeline for your project, and make sure that you leave enough time between contractors so that you aren’t at risk of knock-on effects caused by a single delay. For example, if you ask a decorator to arrive a few days after the plasterer is due to finish, you might be at risk of the walls not having adequately dried.
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