Things You Need to Know About Home Equity

By Jay Moncliff

Taking advantage of existing equity in your home through an equity loan might seem an intelligent choice, especially in times of low interest rates. However, before you take a home equity loan to pay for children's education, buy a car or just pay off credit cards, you should educate yourself about the risks associated with this type of finance, and whether it can work for you.

In essence, a home equity loan uses the current equity you have in your home as collateral for a second mortgage. The more equity you have, the more you can borrow. As with all finance provided against security such as property, if you do not maintain your payments, you run the risk of foreclosure on your home. This fact comes as sobering news for many, so you must consider your ability to repay the loan before you borrow against the equity in your home.

Many people like the sound of this type of loan, but neither understand the concept of existing equity, or know if they actually have any in their home. Equity is how much of your initial home loan you have actually paid back. A rule of thumb to determine how much equity you might have, take your home's current value and subtract it from the outstanding loan amount. The remainder is your equity, and amongst other things will be used to determine how much you can afford to borrow. For example, if your home is currently worth $400,000 and you have $280,000 outstanding on your mortgage, your existing equity is $120,000.

This information is the starting point for any home equity loan application. Educating yourself about interest rates, home equity and the application process in general places you in a better position should you decide to apply, and negotiating a home equity loan, the more knowledge you hold at the start of negotiations, the better rate you are likely to receive

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.loansreviews.info a website specialized on Equity Home Loan, resources and articles. This site provides updated information on Equity Home Loan. For more info visit his site: Equity Home Loan

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Finding the Best Home Improvement Loans

By John Mussi

When the time comes to do work around the house, finding good deals on home improvement loans can be vitally important.

Home improvement loans can be used to help you improve any part of your house or other real estate, providing you with the money to get the materials that you need and to hire the professionals that can get the job done.

Interest rates tend to be lower, since the improvements can actually raise the value of the real estate, and home improvement loans can even include some of the external costs associated with building (such as building permits and property taxes.) Best of all, you don't need to supply any additional collateral… the improvements and the real estate serve as their own guarantee.

Equity is a key factor

When applying for home improvement loans, the equity of your house or real estate comes into play in a major way. Equity, if you aren't sure, is the amount of money that you have invested in the home or property… in other words, it's the portion of the house that you actually “own”, and that isn't tied up in a mortgage or other loan.

If you have a mortgage for £100,000 on a home and have already paid £50,000 of it, then you have 50% equity in that home… or £50,000. This means that if you apply for home improvement loans on that house, the equity that you have will be a major factor in determining how much you can borrow.

The equity in the house serves as the collateral for the loan, and allows you to get home improvement loans that you otherwise might not be eligible for.

Researching the project

Before applying for home improvement loans, you need to gather some information. You're going to need to get the cost of supplies from at least 2 or 3 different outlets (such as building supply stores), as well as estimates from 2 or 3 contractors on how much the entire job will cost.

From there you need to start getting quotes from banks or finance companies, showing them the work that you plan on doing as well as the estimates for materials and labor.

After receiving several loan quotes, look them over and see which one has the lowest interest rate with the best terms… this is the place you want to get your home improvement loans from.

Once you've obtained your loan and started on your improvements, you need to start working on repaying what you've borrowed.

Not only does fast repayment prevent damage to your credit report, but it can also help to establish a good working relationship with a lender which can lead to lower rates and better terms down the road.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author's biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

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