Cash, Financing, or Both. A Worksheet

Path 1. Pay cash

• Cost of the roof: $______
• Savings you can use without dropping below 3 months of emergency fund: $______
• Shortfall (if any): $______
• If shortfall is 0: pay cash. Done.
• If shortfall is small: ask about a "deposit + finished" split. Many roofers (us included) will take 50% on material delivery and 50% on completion. No financing needed.

Path 2. Insurance pays most

• Carrier-approved scope of loss: $______
• Your deductible: $______
• Out of pocket: deductible only
• If your deductible is a percentage of home value, this number can be $5,000 to $15,000. Plan for it. That is the number the worksheet is about.

Path 3. Finance the whole thing

• Cost of the roof: $______
• Monthly payment you can afford: $______
• At Service Finance Company (our partner), $20,000 roof at 9.99% for 10 years is about $264/month.
• At Enhancify, same roof can be 12 months no interest if paid in full inside the promo window. After that the rate is high. Read the fine print.
• Rule of thumb: pick a term that gets the payment under what you save by not having a roof leak. If the new roof saves you $80/month in cooling costs, a $200/month payment is workable.

Use ncroofingservice.com/financing for the live calculator. The numbers above are illustrative.

The split that most people use

• 40% of NC homeowners pay cash for the full roof
• 35% file insurance and pay only the deductible
• 25% finance some or all of it
• There is no wrong answer. The wrong move is letting a roofer push you into a financing product they get a kickback on.