Remodeling a garage might appeal. If you’re a homeowner, and you don’t feel your current garage meets your needs, you may decide to modify it. When you do, you can use it for other things.
Maybe you’ll make it large enough so that it can now hold two vehicles rather than one. Perhaps you’ll add a space for more tools if you enjoy DIY projects. Maybe you’ll add some additional electrical components.
Garage remodeling usually costs between $7K-$15K, and that’s not something everyone can afford all the time. You might have to pick your spot to identify a time when you can move forward with such a project.
How can you pay for a garage remodeling job? We’ll talk about some options right now.
You Can Save Up the Money
Saving up the money usually becomes the most attractive option if you’re going to do a home improvement project of this nature. While $7K-$15K seems like a lot, it’s usually something that the average homeowner can afford if they set their mind to it and try to stay frugal. If you put away some money from each paycheck, then hopefully within a few months you will have the necessary funds, or you can at least put some money down on the project and then pay for the rest of it in installments.
While it’s always nice to pay for an entire home improvement project upfront, you don’t necessarily have to do that. Most contractors who will remodel your garage will set up a payment plan with you if you don’t feel like you can cover the entire cost at one time.
If you pay for half and then pay for the rest in half a dozen installments over the next six months, most contractors will agree to such a payment plan. If you’re not comfortable doing that, then you’ll need to wait until you have the whole amount.
It might take a while, depending on your take-home pay. Those with higher-paying jobs can usually come up with the money faster.
If you’re barely covering the essentials like rent and groceries every month, then you’ll need to wait until you’re in a better spot financially. Maybe you might ask for a raise or you can look for a higher-paying job if you want do the garage remodel urgently.
You Can Wait till You Get a Windfall
You can also wait till you get a windfall if you don’t have the money in hand right now. For instance, you might wait till you get a refund from your tax return.
A tax refund can go toward something like a vacation, but putting it toward a garage remodel means you’re investing in your house, and that’s probably a better strategy in the long run. If you have a garage that you remodeled, you can enjoy that home’s feature for as long as you live there.
If you ever decide to move on from that house, you can also point to the newly remodeled garage as an attractive perk. You might get some higher offers from interested buyers when the time comes if they see you have an updated garage with room for two cars or a work station for DIY projects.
You might also wait till a relative dies and leaves you some money. That might happen at any time, but you can’t usually predict it. It’s not like waiting for a tax refund that you know will come at a certain time of the year.
You might also get a windfall from some other means, like winning a prize in the lottery. You can never predict such a thing, though. It’s great if it happens, but the odds don’t make it likely. You’ll probably need to rely on more conventional means of getting the money together for this kind of a home improvement project.
You Can Get a Home Improvement Loan from a Bank or Credit Union
If you don’t have any cash windfalls coming your way anytime soon, and you don’t feel like you can get a raise at work or move to a higher-paying position, then you can always approach a lending entity for a loan. You can get the money from a bank or credit union.
If you go that route, you’ll want to talk to someone at a bank or credit union who approves loans. You can go to a local brick-and-mortar bank or credit union location to do that.
However, these days you can also usually apply for such a loan online. It seldom takes very long or requires that much effort.
To get a personal loan for something like home improvements you will need at least a decent credit score. If you have a score that’s currently over 700, you can probably get a loan. If you don’t have very good credit, then you might see whether another adult in your house who has better credit can take out the loan.
Remember that if you do this, though, you will presumably have to pay interest on the loan. You may not want to do that if you feel like you want to remodel the garage, but you don’t need to it urgently.
Something like a garage remodel probably falls into the realm of things you want rather than those you need. Perhaps you want to do the remodeling job because you’re going to start a home business of some kind and you need the garage set up in a certain way to accommodate that. Short of that, you’re probably better off trying to save up the money to avoid having to pay interest on the loan.
If you do decide that getting a loan for this kind of thing makes sense, then you’re probably better off approaching a smaller bank or credit union rather than a big national one. Smaller banks and credit unions usually have no problem giving individuals living in their same community modest interest rates.
