It’s that time of year. Your tax return will be coming soon, and you may have gotten a stimulus check. With that extra money, you’re looking to improve your home, but you may not be able to foot the entire bill. However, you also don’t want to hurt your credit score either. So how do you do both? If it’s a small project, you may be able to do it all at once with no issue. But for a bigger project, it may take a little more time and effort. Here are 3 tips on improving your home without hurting your credit score.
Do (some of) it yourself.
The first temptation when you’re looking to improve your home is to do it yourself. This can be a great option for small projects. For example, if you want to repaint your cabinets or change your door knobs and handles, you can do that yourself. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. However, you will want to resist the temptation to do it all yourself. There are just some things that should be left to the professionals, especially electric and plumbing. But if you can do some of it yourself, you’ll save some money and avoid hurting your credit score.
Take it one step at a time.
You may also be tempted to complete your entire home improvement project at once. This is often a great option if you have great credit and low debt accounts, especially when working with a contractor. However, if you are already working to pay down what you owe, it is sometimes better to do your home renovation project in stages. According to Equifax, a credit score is calculated with the following things in mind:
- “The number of accounts you have
- The types of accounts
- Your used credit vs. your available credit
- The length of your credit history
- Your payment history”
If taking out a higher loan will hurt your credit score, start with one or two rooms instead of doing an entire home remodel at once. These smaller projects will reduce the amount of financing you take out at one time. With a smaller project and a smaller loan, you’re less likely to impact your credit score. Then when you’ve paid it off, you can begin another small project until your entire home improvement is complete.
Finance with HFS Financial!
Last but not least on our list of 3 tips on improving your home without hurting your credit score is financing with HFS Financial. Let’s be real: there are a lot of things you will want to leave to the professionals, and to do that, you may need a loan. HFS Financial can help you find financing for all of your home improvement needs. All you have to do is complete our 60-second application. This application will not affect your credit score. If you qualify, we will help find you the right loan for your project. Seriously, it’s that easy! Plus, with HFS Financial, all of the loan money comes to you, not your contractor(s). So you get to make the calls on how it is spent to improve your home.
Take a minute now to get started on your dream, or give us a call at 1-800-254-9560 if you have any questions. We can’t wait to help you get started. “You Dream It, We Finance It.”