Can I make improvements to a home I want to buy?

I think this is an important question because I think lots of people when they are shopping for homes find homes that they like, they are in the right area, close to the right schools, whatever it might be but they are kind of like “Nah… I’m not sure I like some of the things in the home.”  And they then may pass on that home.

Well the answer is you can buy the home and make those improvements that you want to make to make the home more comfortable for you, but there are some very important things that you need to know.

The first option and the one that most people use is to hire a professional contractor to do those improvements for you. If you are going to add it to the mortgage that will be a stipulation unless you can prove that you have the necessary skills to perform the kind of renovations that you are doing. If you happen to work in an office and you want to do the plumbing in your home it is likely not going to get approved. If you are in the construction business it is probably likely that you could be approved to do it yourself.

So now, the other thing that you need to understand is that you are going to have to get quotes from the contractors. Which means that those people are going to have to come into the home prior to finance and condition removal date, which means that you need to add more time to your standard finance and condition removal date. This is something that will something that will often get missed but imagine this scenario that you haven’t had time to get your contractor in the home for a $20,000 renovation. You remove financing conditions and then the contractor comes in and for whatever reson the renovation is not approved and now you are stuck with the home and not being able to do the renovations. It is really, really important.

I think another one that is important is that there is a few extra fees and inspections and things that have to happen so you need to budget for those types of things. Another option you might want to consider, particularly if it happens to be a smaller renovation, there are cash back mortgages available and there is also the idea that instead of putting ten or fifteen percent down, if that was your original plan, you could consider putting less money down and taking some of you own cash and investing that into the renovation. This is really important when you sit down with a mortgage professional to run all those scenarios for you so that you can see the one that makes the most financial sense.

Thanks for watching.

If you would like more information on this or other mortgage related topics contact Canada Mortgage Direct in one of the following ways:

Visit our website at CanadaMorgageDirect.com.

You can phone our office: 403-250-2100

Or you can email us at Save@CanadaMortgageDirect.com

We would also like to invite you  to the Canadian home Buyers Academy and you can visit us there at the CanadianHomeBuyersAcademy.com

Thanks again!