I’m really excited to partner with Chase, which is helping to make the homebuying experience easier during this busy homebuying season.
So you want to be a homeowner. So did we, and homebuying was definitely one of the best decisions my husband and I ever made. Three years ago, we bought our first home, a fixer upper with lots of potential in a great neighborhood. It was our first not-a-condo-or-rental home and the last milestone on our childhood bucket list. We were homeowners, and this was our American Dream realized.
We went through the process of securing a mortgage, after putting down as much as we could for a down payment and saving a little bit extra to renovate. We had ideas for what we wanted the house to look like, plus it needed some upgrades that the engineer revealed to us during his inspection. If you are shopping for a home, it’s a good idea to get an engineer to check it out, because you can miss a lot, and you want to know what you’re dealing with.
So we had two big financial investments in a short time: buying the home, and then renovating it. Many people take out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) to improve to their home, because they see the long term value in this, and until you actually become a homeowner you don’t realize how much goes into maintaining a comfortable residence (we took a lot for granted in our condo!). But once you own a home, you tend to feel it’s worth it, because it’s yours.
So within three months we upgraded and/or replaced a lot:
– Renovated the kitchen cabinets, appliances, and floors
– Completely renovated two bathrooms
– Refinished all the hardwood floors and retiled the tile floors
– Replaced every window in the house
– Re-cemented the sidewalk around our home
– Replaced the old garage doors with automatic garage doors
– Created a patio area on a large patch of backyard
– Installed central air conditioning
– Replaced the water heater
– Change the aluminum siding for a new colored home
– Repointed the stone and brick
– Replaced all the gutters
– Got a new roof
and much, much more.
We have a lovely house, and after all our hard work (some we did ourselves, some we hired others to do) it felt like it was totally ours. We used some of our savings to help pay for it, saved some money by doing some of the work ourselves (it’s empowering and we learned a lot as we went), and we also borrowed some. Almost half of homeowners agree with us and feel a HELOC is a worthwhile way to invest in the value of a home, as you can see in the infographic below from Chase:
A survey by Chase shows that 38 percent have used or are considering a Home Equity Line of Credit in the next five years, with the majority (58 percent) putting it toward home improvements. Most homeowners think the value of their home will continue to increase over the next five years, despite the already rising prices that home are being offered on the market for, showing a great sense of optimism by homeowners in the value of their homes.
Despite this, many homeowners have a “fear of missing out” mindset and are open to the idea that their current home isn’t their permanent home. Access to a large amount of information via the web can cause homeowners to freely compare on their own, and maybe feel a sense of dissatisfaction… maybe there is another home out there for them?
Whatever stage you may be in, whether buying your first home, looking to improve your current home, or curious about what else is out there, Chase is committed to helping people be in control of their finances with planning and preparing to meet their financial goals. To begin your journey to the front door, visit chase.com/homebuyers, where you can also find out more about the survey and homebuying tools and tips.