Tips for Refinancing Your Home

| October 13, 2013

six tips for saving money on your fall necessitiesHome loans have become a stomach-clenching topic, as new complexities add creative variables to your existing lending agent, introducing extras or previously little touched on elements as standard. We acknowledge that it is tiring to trawl through an expanding field of beneficial possibility, that the devil you know is comfortable, a little ineffective, but familiar all the same. Refinancing your home doesn’t have to be stressful, in fact, trading in an old plan and exploring your options can offer you unprecedented flexibility, allowing you to seize your financial desires now, rather than later. The reasons why you’d consider this move range from extending your existing property (a child-free adult zone, anybody?), to consolidating debt and improving tax time efficiency. The how, on the other hand, doesn’t need to be complicated; follow our top five tips and start your refinance journey – you won’t look back.

Do Your Research

There’s an old saying, knowledge is power. Arm yourself by digging deep into your standing mortgage, rifling through paper and electronic histories, noting payments, rates and fees, indicating when each was paid and the total costs since you signed the dotted line. After you’ve nailed down costings and tabled figures, take a closer look at your current collection of home loan features – can you see a direct benefit? Have they saved money and afforded a degree of flexibility that allows you the amount of freedom you need to make difficult choices? Can you see yourself renovating?
With these questions in mind, unpack the same aspects of your proposed new home loan, simulating the same amount of time you’ve spent attached to your current provider, projecting numbers into the future. If you change, where will you be financially eighteen months from now?

What You Want VS. What You Need

Some features sound great on paper, particularly when you’re new to the home loan game. If you neglected to investigate your applied features pack, only to regret it later, don’t make the same mistake again. Ask questions and identify whether an offer too good to be true will leave you paying an increased rate of interest, at the expense of flowery sounding extras you won’t use. Think of it as buying a new car; you want it to work, the model you’ve researched is reliable, safe and performance orientated, though not the fanciest choice on the lot. Though it’s nice to look at extragavent vehicles and be swept away by their aesthetics, deep down you know a pretty lick of paint won’t save your family should anything horrible happen.

What’s in Your Future?

A brief few paragraphs in the past, we mentioned the chances of you renovating. Before you contact a local building provider like Coral Homes, ask yourself if you can handle the costs and responsibilities of re-financing, building and paying out an existing home loan. Everybody should expand their dreams, we are certainly not arguing anything else, but make sure it is a long term possibility that won’t get you into a spot of money trouble later on.

Markets change and circumstances are ever shifting – what was once right for you and your family may be obsolete, as you struggle to satisfy the growing demands of teenagers and control an unwieldy budget. Though there are no wrong answers, there is a right solution for your needs. Research, be honest about your financial situation and weigh up the risks and benefits carefully.

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Category: Family Finances, Housing

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