How to Offer Customer Financing for Home Improvement
Financing is essential for customers, especially in today’s tough economic climate. It allows your customers to pay upfront costs easily, helping them feel they can pay for even more renovations.
Key Takeaways:
- Introduce Financing Early: Present home improvement financing options at the start of consultations to reduce sticker shock and increase project approvals.
- Highlight Affordable Payments: Frame projects in manageable monthly installments rather than large upfront costs to make upgrades more attainable.
- Partner with the Right Lender: Choose a provider offering soft pull credit checks, multiple loan options, and easy integration with your sales tools and process.
- Sunlight Maxx™, Orange®, and Tangerine™ are some of the best financing options for home improvements if you’re looking for flexibility and custom-fit solutions.
- Business Benefits: Financing home improvement projects helps contractors increase average ticket sizes, speed approvals, and grow their business.
Financing is essential for customers, especially in today’s tough economic climate. It allows your customers to pay upfront costs easily, helping them feel they can pay for even more renovations. Financing options will let your consumers purchase something they want or need — in this case, home improvement renovations — by breaking the costs down into affordable monthly payments.
Sunlight Financial allows home improvement contractors to seamlessly offer financing using our innovative technology. As a Sunlight partner, you can offer financing for many home improvement projects, including:
For contractors, this means higher average project ticket sizes, faster approvals and project starts, less sticker shock, more satisfied customers, and increased competitiveness in a crowded market.
Sounds great for all parties, right? But first, you need to learn how to offer customer financing for home improvement.
Tips for Offering Home Improvement Financing to Homeowners
If you want to provide financing, you’ll want to be in control of the sales process from the beginning of the conversation. Instead of waiting until the end, bring up the financing solutions you offer early so homeowners know they have options.
1. Introduce Financing Early in the Conversation
Instead of waiting until the end of a quote or consultation, present financing options upfront. This signals to homeowners that affordable monthly payments are available and that their dream project may be easier to achieve than they imagined.
Early discussions about financing also reduce sticker shock and build trust with clients.
2. Include Financing in All Sales Materials
Make financing visible across your customer touchpoints:
- Add “Financing Available” banners to your website and social media.
- Include monthly payment breakdowns in proposals and contracts.
- Link to detailed financing information in emails and invoices.
When financing is clearly presented, customers are more likely to consider upgrades or add-ons they might have otherwise skipped.
3. Emphasize Affordable Monthly Payments
Frame projects in terms of manageable monthly payments rather than a large lump sum. For example: “Complete your kitchen remodel for just $249/month for X months.”
This makes a project feel attainable and encourages homeowners to say “yes” sooner. It’s also an effective way to upsell additional features, such as energy-efficient windows or smart home automation.
4. Use Marketing Campaigns to Promote Financing
Leverage email campaigns, social media ads, and post-quote follow-ups to educate potential customers on financing options. Highlight benefits like flexible terms, low monthly payments, and the ability to start projects immediately, even if they don’t have the full amount upfront.
Here are some other tips:
- Pick a reliable financing provider that will accommodate you and your customer.
- Ease unsure homeowners with soft-pull credit checks. See what they qualify for without a hard pull on their credit until funding.
- Try to understand your customers’ needs and preferences. What loans and promotional products will help them achieve their goals?
- Learn about the home improvement trends in your area; are there opportunities to upsell?
Tips for Presenting Home Improvement Financing
But marketing your financing options is just the first part of the puzzle. Providing financing is most effective when you make the process simple, transparent, and customer-focused.
Always remember to:
- Be proactive: Introduce financing early in your conversations.
- Explain the process: Outline application steps, required documents, and funding timelines.
- Support your customers: Help them select the loan that best fits their budget and project goals.
- Highlight monthly payments: Show homeowners exactly what they’ll pay each month and for how long.
- Offer upsells: Use financing to present optional upgrades that enhance the home or energy efficiency.
Integrating these steps is part of how to offer home improvement financing as a contractor.
Choosing the Best Financing Partner
Selecting a reliable lending partner is critical. Homeowners expect a smooth process, and contractors need a partner that integrates with their sales system and simplifies approvals.
What to Look for in a Financing Partner
- Multiple loan options: Provide solutions for prime, near-prime, and non-prime homeowners.
- Soft credit pulls: Homeowners can get approved for loans without affecting their credit scores until funding.
- Digital applications: Paperless, easy-to-use platforms save time for both sales teams and clients.
- Flexible terms: Offer options like low monthly payments, promotional plans, or extended terms.
- Integration capabilities: Platforms should work alongside your CRM and sales tools.
Benefits of Partnering with Sunlight Financial
As a Sunlight partner, we give you the tools and products you need to successfully offer financing to your customers. With our proprietary point-of-sale solutions, Orange® and Tangerine™, you can present financing solutions to homeowners in a few clicks.
Other benefits of partnering with our team to help you offer home improvement financing include:
- We provide instant credit approval for all qualified applicants.
- Our services require minimal documentation.
- We provide highly competitive loan rates.
- Sunlight Financial has a best-in-class process that helps streamline financing. Plus, we can integrate with your existing sales and operations tools.
- Our robust product suite has loan options built to meet the needs of homeowners.
Plus, as a Sunlight partner, you have access to training resources designed to help you offer financing and grow your business.
Best Ways to Finance Home Improvement Projects Through Us
Upon partnering with us, contractors have several methods to offer home improvement lending:
- Prime Plus Lending: Sunlight Maxx™ is Sunlight’s proprietary credit strategy that provides full-spectrum financing for homeowners across all credit profiles–from prime to subprime, without waterfalling to other lending portals. It gives homeowners more purchasing power while helping contractors increase average ticket sizes and close bigger projects.
- Orange®: Orange® enables your team to close more deals with soft credit checks, offer side-by-side payment options, run fully paperless applications with e-signatures, and track approvals, funding, and performance through reporting dashboards. Flex Approvals™ allow you to handle mid-project upgrades and add-ons, giving your sales team speed, control, and visibility at scale without signing new paperwork.
- Tangerine™: Tangerine™ is a mobile-first financing solution for smaller or mid-sized contractors. It offers no dealer fees, flexible loan terms, funding as fast as 24 hours, and simple QR code applications.
Make sure to compare our solutions in more detail to determine how to finance home improvements for your customers as effectively as possible.
Contact Us Today to Get Started
Improve your sales team’s and homeowners’ financing experience by partnering with Sunlight Financial. Our cutting-edge technology allows you to enhance your home improvement financing quickly and with ease. We also provide white glove service that helps train and support your staff and provides high-quality customer service to homeowners.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I offer home improvement financing as a contractor?
Partner with a reliable home improvement lender, present financing early in your sales conversations, and use digital tools to simplify applications, approvals, and funding.
What are the best financing options for home improvements?
Flexible monthly payments, promotional products with no payments during the promotional period, and full-spectrum lending solutions like Sunlight Maxx™ give homeowners more choices while helping contractors close more deals.
What types of home improvement projects can be financed?
Financing can be applied to HVAC replacements, roofing, decks, patios, interior remodels, energy efficiency upgrades, windows, fencing, smart home automation, and more.
How long does it take to get funding?
Many platforms, including Orange® and Tangerine™, offer funding in as early as 24 hours once the application is approved and signed.