Government and Conventional Renovation Mortgage Loans

This guide covers renovations after purchase by homeowners. You have purchased your home, and you are done moving in. All the boxes have been unpacked, and you are settling in nicely; what is there to do now? Slowly but surely, it is time to spend more money. It isn’t on repairs. Instead, it is on that basement finishing, patio, deck, or fence. Now, I am not saying you need to find a magical bag with $30,000 in it. But if you plan it out properly, you can get some functional spaces without breaking the bank. I want to walk you through and show you my thoughts and rationale behind this.

Homeowners Doing Renovation Mortgage Loans

The first thing you need to do is put together your list of priorities on what you’d like to accomplish and in what order you’d prefer them. Since my home was new construction, I knew I needed to have a fence pretty high up on that list. We have a dog, and the thought of walking him daily instead of letting him out the back door seemed like a major hassle for us.

Another item that was pretty high on our list was a decent-sized patio in our backyard. It would be nice to have a space to put our patio furniture instead of having it sit in the grass. The final two items on the list would be finishing the basement and putting in a wet bar and bathroom. This project might cost a pretty penny, so I am not sure how high on the list it would be.

Priorities On Renovation Mortgage Loans

After laying all the projects out on the table, it was time to determine in what order we wanted to get these items done. I think this was a fairly easy list to put together. We wanted to get our fence done, potentially a patio—finally, the basement work if and when the money was right. Now that we have a list, it was time to price out all these projects to see what we could afford and what would take some time. The first item we went to tackle was the fence. We had a couple of companies come out, and the prices that we were getting quoted were $4,000 or higher. This alone would be about the entire budget we had allocated to spending on projects this year. Something would have to give, and it finally did. Our neighbor approached us about getting a fence together. She has a friend who owns his own fencing company. This would be perfect!

Getting Quotes and Permits For The Job

He came out and came up with a quote of $2,300! Plus, the cost of getting plans and permits. The contractor can start right away. However, the key to when he and his team can start depends on how fast the city can issue the permit. There is much thought here. I was sold. Let’s make this happen!  I learned that we can get a permit within a matter of days.  We got our fence put up in July, which was one headache solved.

Budget and Costs of Renovation Mortgage Loans

As the summer last year was winding down, we had determined not to go forward with the patio. We decided to push that off to the spring of 2019. Now, we are in the predicament of whether we want to go with look or functionality.   A simple concrete patio can cost about $2,500, whereas brick pavers will cost at least $5,000. I am a big fan of the paver patios. But I think I can save a big chunk of money if we go through with the concrete in this situation. This decision isn’t 100%, but it sure is close. The final item on my list is the basement finishing. Quite frankly, I can see doing this project in steps to accomplish what we need to get done. There are 3 main components we need to do: framing and electrical, drywall installation, and floor installation. Our tentative budget to get this done is $8,000 or less, if possible. After this is finally done, the $5,000 bathroom could possibly be entertained, but that is a LONG way away.

Keeping Up With The Jones With Renovations Mortgage Loans

 No one has ever said you must keep up with your family or neighbors to complete your home and yard in a way you can afford. Also, it isn’t worth going into debt to complete these items, especially if you won’t see much return on investment down the road. Doing this in baby steps is a great way to proceed because you will have everything you want before you know it!  Make smart decisions and do your research!