Buyers Must Have a Workable Plan

After walking through yet another foreclosed home with some high-end renovations that were about 75% finished, I can’t stress this enough:

Renovations to your new home do you no good if they cause you to not be able to afford to stay. 

I don’t give financial or legal advice but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that your children’s college fund, reserve savings, and retirement planning ought to come before upgrading a 15 year old bath and kitchen. Moreover, if you are borrowing to make those renovations, on a 30-year mortgage you’ll end up paying double for the work over the life of your loan. 

Once you close on a home, plan on saving your money prior to going nuts on renovations. We are descended from eons of people who bathed in rivers. You can deal with a 1975 bathroom that gets visited by adult house guests 4 times per year. If you overspend and lose the house, you’ll have primed the pump for someone else.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness should never be leveraged!