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How to Budget For Your Home Improvement Projects Without Going Broke

Fri 02 Jan 2009 - 10:06

How to Budget For Your Home Improvement Projects Without Going Broke
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Raj_Krishnaswamy]Raj Krishnaswamy

For many people, their primary residence is the biggest investment that they have made in their lives. It is no surprise therefore that people want to protect their biggest asset by way of making improvements to their investments both by way of performing maintenance related tasks as well as by making improvements to their home. In addition to providing a level of increased value to their homes, home improvement projects also provide for a better living condition and decor to the people living in the home. However, home improvement projects can sometimes be very expensive depending upon the depth of what is involved and the magnitude of the project undertaken. It is imperative therefore that one be very careful in the budgeting process and the financial planning of the home improvement project in order to come out of it unscathed from a money standpoint. In this article, we will outline a couple of key steps that you can take in order to achieve this objective.

The first step to take is to go through and write down all of the costs involved in the home improvement project that you are envisaging. These costs data should include all of the costs of materials, shipping charges if any are involved and all costs of labor that may be involved if professional installation services are planned. Once all the costs are written down, it is a good practice to mark up the final number by a certain percentage such as ten percent or twenty percent or so, to account for any price increases or cost overruns. This is the single biggest mistake that most home improvement novices end up making because they do not account for cost overruns.

The second step is to determine how you plan to finance the home improvement project. Small projects can be paid for in cash, but larger projects may involve either a significant outlay of cash or obtaining some form of financing. If loans or other similar financing methods are to be taken up, ensure that you can pay for the principal and interest consistently until the loan is paid off. The cost of interest payments must be included as part of the project costs.

A final step to consider prior to undertaking home improvement projects that involve very high capital budgets is the cost of any extended warranties that may be worthy of taking on. For example, certain home heating systems installations will come with an extended warranty services available for a certain price. If these additional expenses are not included in your costing up front, then you are likely to have unpleasant financial surprises at the end of the project. Thus you can observe that by proper and meticulous pre-planning and financial evaluations, you can perform your home improvement projects successfully without any financial hiccups.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Raj_Krishnaswamy http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Budget-For-Your-Home-Improvement-Projects-Without-Going-Broke&id=1835663


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