How do you get the best out of your home equity loan? As a homeowner, equity can be a best friend and an umbrella in days of unprecedented rainy days. However, you necessarily do not have to wait for the rains before you use this umbrella. You can always use it as a fashion statement even on days with clear skies and give your building a much-needed makeover montage.

What is EQUITY?

Simply put, equity is the difference between the current market value of your house and what you still owe on it. For instance, if your home would sell on the market for $650,000 and you currently still owe $350,000 to your lender, your equity is $300,000. Several factors can affect equity, such as economic factors, inflation, interest rates, and government policies, but equity can always be useful.

Equity can be put to good use in renovations which can always boost the resale value of your property. Here are some great ideas on ways you can put that equity to good use.

Kitchen Remodelling

Your kitchen aesthetics can go a long way in increasing the value of your property. With the possibility of a Return On Investment as high as 85%, using your equity to spice up the looks of a kitchen is a very safe gamble. Most popular touch-ups come in the form of new flooring, painting or changing the wallpapers, installing new cabinets and countertops.

A lot of kitchens get outdated as a result of the very fast upward movent of technology advancements, and retouching your kitchen by replacing old, outdated kitchen tech with more modern ones can significantly increase its value vis a vis your property value. It also turns your kitchen into a more beautiful space for family time and can even get your headstrong teenager into doing the dishes before they’re asked for once.

Attic Repurposing

Most people usually use the attic for storing old belongings, forgotten mementos, and decorations for the festivities, but it might just be time to move out your old junk and make room for a property price hike.

Using your equity, you can turn your attic into another bedroom in your house, which could increase your house’s resale value. You can also repurpose it into a Study, ManCave, Women’s Powder and wine room, or just a mini indoor playhouse for kids. Repurposing an attic to another bedroom has an ROI of about 83% and gives an extra bedroom where you can put that uncle who snores too loudly when he comes visiting at Christmas time.

Bathroom Remodel

You might not put a lot of thought into it, but you probably spend more time in your bathroom than you do in your dining. Though a bathroom remodels has a low ROI of just about 65%, it is still one of the most requested remodeling options. You can decide to change up the showerheads, install a new heater, replace the bath itself, change up the painting, wallpaper or curtains, or you can throw all caution to the wind and install a mini Jacuzzi.

Either way, a bathroom remodel isn’t a bad idea, and having really cool bathrooms can raise your resale value and make you feel like “the One” while taking a number two.

Sidings

“Sidings are forever,” or is it diamonds? Sidings are known to have a very long life, lasting several decades, but with time they, unlike diamonds, begin to lose that sparkly sheen and shine. With several Siding options to choose from, such as Vinyl, Fiber Cement, Foam-backed Vinyl, brick, stone, and even wood, your home has an entire catalog of looks it can choose from.

With an ROI ranging from 77% to 84%, a Siding replacement can be a big boost for your home’s resale value. Your home can look very trendy while still having the required protection from UV light, wind, and weather elements. I am sure you’ll agree that being the “Nicest house on the block” would be a great bargaining chip to help add a couple of extra zeros to your home value. 

Equity can be a fickle thing with the constant fluctuations in the market. However, when you’ve got enough of it, using it to finance home renovation is an excellent idea as this can help increase your home resale value which is also your home’s market value. Since equity is the difference between your home’s market value and what you still owe on it, increasing your home’s resale/market value inadvertently increases your equity. So you just used some equity to increase your equity. Isn’t that a steal?