The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood

The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood

Playing The Long Game

This post is sponsored by Northwest Bank. . All thoughts and opinions are my own. Northwest Bank is Member FDIC
When I was a kid, I grew up in a six bedroom six bathroom house in a beautiful neighborhood in the esteemed Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia. All I “knew” (and what I learned to be “true”) was that if you worked hard, studied harder and got a good job, you could live in beautiful home in a beautiful place too.I grew up learning about the world; English lit, physics, Econ, psychology, algebra, calc, biology, US government, and all the art I could manage to squeeze into my high school course load. Four years into college, Brandon and I started to look for a place to live and I discovered how much I hadn’t yet learned.


It was senior year of college and I found myself married, finishing an entire undergrad semester in the two months before our first baby was born, and needing to find a place to live that wasn’t a college dorm or a one room apartment. There aren’t many people who really know the beginning of my family’s story (I haven’t yet written about it here on the blog) but it’s the story of a 21 year old girl thrown into adulthood without much knowledge yet of how to be a financially responsible, contributing member of her family. My husband had a great job just starting out. I wasn’t sure yet what life had in store but it had to look something like “get married, have a baby, buy a house”, right? Isn’t that what people do? Reality set in quickly that we had so much to learn about home ownership. First came a crash course in getting a mortgage and buying our first house. We found our little log cabin sort of by accident and practically bought it on the spot. It was perfect four our little family and a place we could surely turn into something perfect for us. Everything we wanted to change about the house would be taken care of down the road.
But once our house was truly “ours” reality set in that money was incredibly tight and everything we thought we “could” do might not be everything we actually “should” do. Through trial and error we guessed at what would make our house livable AND provide a return on investment that would help us in the future. We made to-do lists and task plans while we juggled repairs and updates on things we couldn’t see or enjoy but needed attention and money anyway. We started to research and read about the most reliable ways families can improve their homes by using their own investments to begin with.

Above is a before shot of our “spare” room and below is a shot of that same window after we converted the room into a third bedroom.

For our family, and what I’ve learned is the case for so many families, Home Equity Loans and Home Equity Lines of Credit are a really smart option to look into when you need (or want) to do a major improvement on your home. All new windows, adding a deck, updating your kitchen. You are basically borrowing money from yourself and improving your own asset in the process.
Deck additions have a great return on investment! That’s great news for us after a falling tree sheared our original deck right off our house. Investing in a new one would be a great decision for our long term equity goals. I’m not an expert on HELOC’s. I would never claim to be or even say I could attempt to answer your questions. What I’d love to share with you today is the fabulous resource we’ve found in Northwest Bank. Northwest Bank IS an expert on HELOC’s and I’d like to take the time to share just a bit of what I’ve learned from them. I really like how Northwest Bank has articles organized based on what your family is trying to do. Looking to improve equity with a project? Checkout their ROI statistics.

Unsure of how to use the equity in your home wisely? Read up about being smart and careful with the equity in your home before speaking with a loan expert.

We tried to be smart about our kitchen renovation. By rehabbing salvaged cabinetry for the entire space, we maximized the return on investment and increased the equity we now have in our home.
Many, many families struggle to finance window replacements in their home. Besides being beautiful ways to add natural light, new windows can also decrease energy expenses and help protect your home from the elements. They also increase your equity and offer a great return on investment!
After reviewing the advice on Northwest Banks website, I’m excited to spend some time and money replacing our entry door. The original door and hardware are an eyesore but prior to doing my research I would’ve thought dealing with it or replacing it was a waste of time and money. I’m so glad I was wrong and am glad the effort would yield a good ROI.If you’re looking into applying for a Home Equity Loan or Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) it’s important to trust the company you decide to go with and be sure you are confident they are acting in the best interests of their clients.What makes Northwest Bank different? Affordability. Competitive low rates with predictable low fees.Convenience. You can apply online or in person (applying online is such a huge selling point for me- who has time for another apt?!) Flexibility. Love that you can close in your own home or at the local coffee shop by your house. So much easier than sitting in an office and entertaining kids while you try and finalize things! Zero Surprises. Talk about your monthly payments ahead of time. You’ll enter into a contract with affordable payments that are predictable too. Expertise. Work with people who can answer all your questions and guide you through every step of the loan process on the timeline you need to stick to.It’s nice to know we have a plan in place to protect and increase the value of our home in the long run. Brandon and I have a plan in place to properly update and renovate our home to maximize the equity in it thanks to so much education and information offered by Northwest Bank.Be sure to checkout all the financial resources Northwest Bank has to offer so you and your family can make educated home decisions in the future, too. 

Comments

  2. this stuff is what every one needs to know! We are able to finish our basement using these methods and it would have been so much easier had we known two years ago!

    Reply

  3. Thank you for this post, Jacquie! We have a kitchen renovation & an attic bedroom conversion that we’ve been saving cash for for literally 4 years now (and we only bought our house 5 years ago!). I didn’t know that something like this was available for those types of projects…looking more into it to see if this is something we can afford to do right now so I can stop waiting on these much needed improvements!

    Reply

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