easy home equity loan
Use Your Home Equity Wisely
Web sites like www.LowerMyBills.com make it easy to find and compare various loan options. Here are some tips on how to use your home equity wisely.
* Pay off outstanding debt - "Credit card interest rates can be 10 or more percentage points higher than home equity loans or line of credit, so if you are dealing with mounting debt, it can make sense to pay off those credit cards using a lower-interest home equity loan," says Coffin. Just make sure to cut up the credit cards first.
More easy home equity loan info
Calculating your home's value online
Checking the estimated value of your home these days is a bit like following stock quotes.
That's mainly because many homeowners have come to see their property's price as a kind of stock, giving them equity they might use to buy a nicer place, pay for repairs -- or to feel rich.
To follow the possible changes in the value of their homes, more homeowners are turning to free or nominally priced online tools that spit out a probable home value. Unlike a stock with a daily closing price, a home's value is colored by several variables: neighborhood, the home's condition, the regional housing market, and an agent's or home buyer's rose-colored glasses.
To find out how good such Web sites are at generating consistent numbers, we pulled up estimates on one home in Seattle, a 1918 Craftsman purchased for $230,000 in February 2004.