Shelly in IL Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Hi, anyone out there that is a loan officer/financial officer of any kind? Here is our situation. We have lived in this house for 8 years. Since we have moved in, it has needed siding (current wood siding is rotting like crazy), it has needed a new roof, and it needs a new deck. We have done none of these things = we have put "band-aid" fixes on issues that pop up. However, it really needs it all - and now. We have approx. $130K in equity in this house - also, when we make these big fixes, it will also increase the value of the property-obviously not by as much as maybe 2 years ago - but some. (big house - 6.5 acres +barn). Currently, we have a 4.25% mort. rate for 20 years - we have approx. 16 years left on it. Here is our question - should we refinance and take out money from our equity to make the repairs? (switch to a 30 year) Or, should we consider the home equity option - I'm a bit leery here - the interest rate floats... I expect the repairs to be about $55K (roof about $15k, Siding maybe $10k, and deck $25k (yes, our deck is 1,450 square feet - can't cut it back - it wouldn't make sense on our house). Thanks for your consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennifersLost Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I'm no expert, but first off, I would think about those numbers in terms of doing some, if not all, of the work myself. Can you do some checking around and find a better deal on wood for your deck? Look into smaller local mills, etc. You might be surprised what you can find. What about putting on a metal roof rather than the regular kind. They're much, much cheaper, easier to install (if you can't do it yourself, then your dh could at least act as labor for a contractor), and last a long time. A little "sweat equity" should be able to cut those numbers way back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in IL Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 The problem is = we bought our dream home - fixer upper style. Everything is huge, including the repairs. A metal roof would look really odd on our house - it has one of those ugly '70's mansard rooflines - you know, the house is 2 story and the whole upper floor is roof with windows peeking out. A good suggestion, but just wouldn't work. We aren't up to this refoofing - got too many other irons on the fire. But, we could probably save a little here. Siding - yes, we could probably do this ourselves, if necessary. Deck - we really want to use that Trex kind of stuff. We have a full western exposure that literally eats everything off of the wood in one summer. The current wood is amazingly eaten by the sun. So, we can't cut back there. We do everything by ourselves on this house. I think we could stand a contractor to do most of the decking as we are needing some new uprights, etc. Thanks for the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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