When you buy a home, having a nice, new mortgage payment hanging over your head for the next 30 years can be a little disconcerting.
But, fortunately, the primary benefit of owning a home – building equity for the future – makes that monthly payment worth it.
Once you’ve built equity in your home, you can tap into that to make home improvements, finance a car, or consolidate other debts, as just a few examples.
You don’t have to wait years and years to have significant equity in your home, though! If you make some smart choices, you can build equity right off the bat.
We outlined several ways to build equity sooner rather than later in this blog post, and expanded upon those ideas in our latest vlog, which you can see below:
As Suzie and I discussed in the video, one of the easiest ways to build equity is to simply put more money down on the home. That’s not a viable option for many buyers though.
That means that alternatives like making bi-weekly instead of monthly mortgage payments are the next best thing. Why? Because if you pay bi-weekly, you’ll actually get in the equivalent of 13 payments each year, versus just 12 payments if you pay on a monthly basis. That translates into paying your mortgage off years sooner!
So, not only are there ways to build equity faster, but there’s also ways to do that AND pay off your mortgage sooner. That’s not a bad deal!
Of course, making improvements to your home is a great way to build equity and make it more attractive to buyers.
But don’t be fooled by many of the home improvement shows you see on TV that say things like brand new kitchen cabinets and expensive countertops in the bathroom will make a huge difference in equity.
In our area, making budget-friendly upgrades are typically where it’s at – painting existing cabinets and adding new formica countertops, for example, rather than putting in custom cabinets with granite countertops.
Often what we find is that homeowners that simply update the paint and flooring in their home get a much bigger return on their investment than homeowner’s that go all-out with a huge remodel.
Every property and every situation is different, though, so if you have questions about how to build equity in your property, don’t hesitate to drop by our office or give us a call to learn more!