Updated September 2026 with current rates and figures.
The short answer
If you are not selling, the pay-at-closing structure does not apply to you, because there is no closing for it to be repaid from. Staying and renovating means paying cash or borrowing, usually against your own equity. That is a completely reasonable thing to do. It is just a different decision, judged on different grounds.
The most useful reframe we can offer: a renovation you are going to live in is mostly a purchase, not an investment. Decide whether the years of use are worth the money, and treat any resale benefit as a partial rebate rather than the point.
What borrowing against your home costs right now
Two common instruments, and they behave differently.
A home equity line of credit is revolving and usually variable. You draw what you need as the job progresses, which suits a renovation with an uncertain final number. Bankrate put the national average HELOC rate at 7.11% as of September 16, 2026. Variable means the payment can move against you.
A home equity loan is a lump sum at a fixed rate, which suits a job with a firm price. Bankrate put the national average home equity loan rate at 8.15% as of September 16, 2026. You pay interest on the whole amount from day one, whether the work has started or not.
Read the survey assumptions before you assume those rates apply to you. Bankrate's HELOC average is based on a $30,000 line, a 700 credit score and 80% combined loan to value on an owner occupied primary residence, and home equity lenders typically want you to keep 15% to 20% of the equity untouched. Most HELOCs are variable and can adjust during both the draw and the repayment period.
Both are secured by your house. That is the part people skip past. A renovation financed this way is not a low stakes decision, because the collateral is where you live. Neither is free, and both require a lender to approve you on income, credit and debt load, which is exactly the hurdle that sends some homeowners looking for other options in the first place. For comparison, Bankrate put the average personal loan rate at 12.44% as of September 16, 2026, which is what unsecured borrowing costs when you do not want a lien on the house.
FLYP is a general contractor. We are not a lender, we do not originate or broker financing, and we do not get paid if you take out a loan. Talk to your bank or credit union, and talk to a CPA about whether any of the interest is deductible for your situation, because that depends on facts we cannot see.
What the work actually recovers
You will see a lot of renovation marketing built on resale returns. The industry's own numbers do not support most of it.
In NAR's 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, here is the estimated share of cost recovered at resale for common projects:
| Project | Estimated cost recovered at resale |
|---|---|
| New steel front door | 100% |
| Closet renovation | 83% |
| New fiberglass front door | 80% |
| New vinyl windows | 74% |
| Basement conversion to living area | 71% |
| Attic conversion to living area | 67% |
| Complete kitchen renovation | 60% |
| Minor kitchen upgrade | 60% |
| Bathroom addition | 56% |
| New primary suite | 54% |
| Bathroom renovation | 50% |
One project reaches 100%. The rest do not. And yet the same report finds a typical Joy Score of 8.2, with 43% of homeowners feeling happy and 38% satisfied when they see the finished project. That combination is the real story: people are buying years of use, and they are usually glad they did.
Two more pieces of context worth knowing. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that the median age of the US housing stock reached 44 years in 2023, the oldest on record, and that owners of homes built before 1980 spend about 76% more on maintenance than owners of homes built since 2010. If your house is older, a maintenance budget is not optional, it is just a question of whether you plan it or it arrives as an emergency.
So budget the way you would for anything else you buy and keep. Ask how many years you will use it, not what it will be worth to a stranger.
Where borrowed money is best spent
If you are financing, weight the scope toward things that fail, not things that flatter:
- Systems and envelope first. Roof, siding, windows, drainage, electrical panel, water heater, insulation. Deferred maintenance gets more expensive, not less, and it is the category most likely to block a future sale.
- Safety and access next. Especially if you are planning to stay through a life stage change. Widened doorways, a main floor bathroom, better lighting and grab backing are cheap during a remodel and expensive later.
- Then the rooms you actually stand in. Kitchens and primary baths are worth doing because you use them every day, not because of a resale table.
- Be careful with the most personal choices. Highly specific finishes, a pool, or a layout that only works for you are fine if you are staying a long time. They tend to be neutral or negative for the next owner.
Whatever the scope, get it priced as a fixed number before you draw a dollar. A variable rate loan against a moving scope is how renovations become stressful.
What FLYP's own project files say about scope
We can tell you what our real jobs actually consist of, because that is a fact rather than a projection.
As of September 2026 FLYP had completed underwriting on 16 homes. Renovation budgets on 15 of those files had a median of $80,000 and ranged from $10,000 to $355,000. Five were under $50,000, seven were between $50,000 and $150,000, and three were above $150,000. Nine of those figures are the fixed price on an estimate we actually sent a homeowner; the other six are the budget set during underwriting.
The scopes cluster into flooring and carpet, landscaping and exterior cleanup, bathroom updates, deferred maintenance repairs, interior and exterior paint, kitchen updates, and whole home remodels. Notice how much of that list is condition rather than luxury. That is not an accident, and it is the same advice we would give someone borrowing to renovate in place.
For the three jobs that have both a production start date and a completion date, the work took between 6 and 33 days on site. That is a range from three jobs and it depends entirely on scope, so please do not read it as a typical timeline.
We should be equally clear about what these numbers are not. None of our homes has sold, so we have no sale prices, no realized gains and no resale outcomes. Every value figure we publish is a projection made in our underwriting.
Working with a contractor on a remodel you live in
Living through a renovation is the part nobody budgets for. A few things that genuinely help:
- Insist on a fixed price and a written scope. Not an hourly estimate, not a range. Every change should be a signed change order before the work is done.
- Verify the license and insurance yourself. In Washington, contractors are registered with Labor and Industries and you can look one up. Do it even when you were referred.
- Agree on a schedule and a single point of contact. Ambiguity about who decides things is what turns a six week job into a four month job.
- Ask what the warranty is, in writing. FLYP's renovation work is performed by Green State Restoration, a licensed and insured Washington general contractor, and carries a one year written workmanship warranty.
- Plan where you will cook. Seriously. Kitchen jobs are decided in week one and regretted in week three.
When not to do it
Do not borrow against your home to renovate if:
- The payment only works if nothing else goes wrong. A variable rate line plus a tight budget is a bad pair.
- You are likely to move within a couple of years. You would be paying for use you will not get and cost recovery you probably will not see.
- The house has an unresolved structural, drainage or title problem. Fix the problem before the finishes.
- You are renovating because you feel behind. Nobody ever recovered the cost of keeping up with a neighbor.
If you are actually planning to sell within the next year or so, the calculation changes and pay-at-closing renovation may fit instead. If you are staying, our conventional remodeling service is a remodel you pay for, with a fixed price and a contract.
The bottom line
Using your equity to renovate a home you love is a legitimate choice, and for most people it is a lifestyle purchase with a partial rebate attached rather than a money making move. Price the job properly, borrow deliberately, spend first on what is failing, and do not let anyone sell you a resale number they cannot source.
If you want a real scope and a fixed price for your house, start at get started.
