Home Practical Improvements

HOME 911:  By Tanya T. Lara

Dear home 911,

My family bought a modest house two years ago in Marikina on a 10-year bank loan. During typhoon Ondoy, floodwaters reached up to the second floor of the house, damaging everything inside. The wooden floors and walls have warped and all appliances and furniture have been destroyed. Luckily, we all survived without physical harm. The problem is that with the extent of repairs to be done to make the house livable again, we just can’t afford to pay the mortgage. And nobody wants to buy a house that was damaged by Ondoy, even if you sell it way below the market value — and what value is the house and lot now anyway? It is more practical for us to rent an apartment. While we can still meet the basic necessities, we feel desperate about the mounting bills. It’s easier for us to just let the bank repossess the property. Can we just stop paying and abandon the house? What are the consequences?

Maya

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We all know that making our home look more beautiful is not cheap. It requires money with enormous amount. No matter how practical we want to be, we are still driven by our high fashion sense for our homes. If that is the case, it will be unavoidable for us to have credits and debts in our pursuit to make our home look even better than before.

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The Yuletide season is very much fast approaching. We can sense this because the air is starting to become cold. This might be good at some point but if the coldness is that much, it will be a problem anymore. With this, there is a need for us to maximize the use of our heating machines in our house to make sure that we are safe from too much coldness of air. But doing this is not cheap. You may run out of cash at hand because there are lots of things that you need to finance during this season.

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Getting a home loan is today far easier than it used to be even a few years back. Home loans are full and plenty. You can choose from a wide variety of home loans. If you are a homeowner you could look through some secured homeowner loans. Alternatively, home equity loans are also a good bet. But first of all, before you even decide to start looking for a perfect loan, make sure you have decided what use you will be putting that money to. You certainly don’t need me to tell you that you should not be frittering away borrowed money on pursuits that will give you no returns.

How do you make the best possible use of this money? One common purpose of taking home loans is to pay for higher education. Education, in the twenty-first century, is quite expensive, especially if one is considering the top rung colleges and universities. But, I am sure that you will agree with me when I say that no gifted student should have to bid farewell to a good college merely because of financial constraints. Loans help us pay for such contingencies. They are to help you pay for things that you cannot immediately afford. So, if you have own a house with a high equity, free that equity to pay for your son’s college education.

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