What Makes Home Equity Loans So Attractive?
A home equity loan is a popular way to borrow larger amounts of money from a lending institution using your home as collateral. There are two terms that you should be familiar with when looking into taking out a home equity loan, they are equity and collateral. Equity is the amount of the money that your home is currently worth (appraised value), less any debt (mortgage).
Collateral means that when you take out a loan, you pledge something of significant value (in this case your home). Your home is a guarantee to the bank that you will pay back the loan. If you can not repay the loan, the bank can sell your home to recoup all its losses.
It is important to understand that putting up your home as collateral is a major reason why home equity loans are very attractive to lenders. Lenders find these loans very secure and because they are more secure than other types of loans they are able to give you extremely attractive rates. Usually home equity loans are at or a drop higher than normal mortgage rates. Plus in many cases, the interest paid for these types of loans are tax deductible.
Another reason they are attractive is that it allows home owners to borrow large sums of money, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. You usually can't borrow that much money on a credit card or other type of loan. For instance, if you would like to renovate your home, go on a vacation of a lifetime, send your child or children to college or even use it as an investment or seed money to put down on other businesses, these types of loans can empower an individual very easily.
Home equity is also attractive to many homeowners because the repayment schedule for many of these types of loans can be 5 years, 15 years or even 30 years. For homeowners that would like to borrow large sums of money, but don't want to be burdened with large monthly payments, they make it very easy to budget monthly payments over a long period of time.
While home equity loans are extremely attractive loan products, it is important to make sure that they are right for you and your families specific circumstance. This loan is essentially a second mortgage and if you are unable to pay these types of loans, you can literally lose your home.
Connie Barker is the owner of several financial websites including those dealing with Bad Credit Loans, Personal Loans, and Online Loans
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