Visitor visa previously refused due to lack of funds and ties to home country. What's the best strategy for reapplying?

The idea is not to show a specific amount as "balance" it is to show that you have steady income and expenses in the home country.

This shows that you have established ties.

For example, if each month there is rent deduction, credit card fees, car loan, interest payments, salary and then there are other normal transactions of someone actively living here - this is more important than an account that has a huge balance, but no transactions.

It is especially bad if you have a large influx of funds (called fund parking) and this can lead to outright rejection of your application. So please don't borrow money just to prop up your bank account.

The idea when showing funds is that showing you have access to funds so that you can cover the expenses of your trip.

This means you can show that for example, the flight is paid for by your host, and you have _______ in UK pounds in cash; you have _______ UK pounds available to you in savings and an additional _______ UK pounds on your credit card that you can utilize.

For converting, use onada.com and mention the rate used.

Keep in mind that the officer is trying to determine if you are trying to immigrate illegally. Any kind of obligations that you have on you, or family ties, or a business are evidence that you are unlikely to stay beyond your remit.

They are very keen on signs of deception - such as large deposits and things like having a mountain of paperwork as supporting documents; so please don't try to pad your application.

Asking for loans from banks or friends to pad your account when applying for UK visas is not a bright idea.

They even have a term for it, they call it funds parking, it is seen as a (mild) deception, and it is one of the potential clauses of immediate denial of a visa.

My sis-in-law, that is foreign, applied to a UK visitor visa to visit her brother, and loaned money too, to the tune of 6K Euros, and her application was dismissed on the grounds of she having insufficient funds for the stay. It probably did not help seeing the money coming from two different sources days before the application, that she has little expenses here, sends most of the money abroad, and that she specified an address of friends, and not the family house.

They asked her for 12 months of her bank balance, and obviously, for any candidate, they are looking over sustainability and regular income over time and not for magical sums appearing suddenly before the application.

First, please read Should I submit bank statements when applying for a UK Visa? What do they say about me? That will tell you all about what they're looking for in your finances.

Obtaining a personal loan is a bad strategy. As that answer discusses, they will want to know where large deposits into your bank account come from. A loan for the purpose of padding your account will cast further doubt on your intention to return home and will not help the situation. They want to see that you have sufficient funds to make the trip and are not likely to overstay or work illegally in the UK. Holding somebody else's money does not demonstrate that.

More generally, a visa officer is going to be very concerned about your plans to spend a huge chunk of your savings on a 10-day trip to the UK. You say your trip will cost just £417 (does this include airfare?), which seems extremely low to me, especially since you plan to stay in a hotel. That's just ~£42/day for hotel, food, transportation, and all other expenses. I would say that your new application is likely to run into trouble on the basis of your finances.

As for hiring a consultant, the danger is that there are a lot of unqualified and/or unscrupulous consultants who will try to take advantage of you. Some will take your money and give you nothing in return. Others may encourage you to submit an application with false documents and get you banned from the UK. Be extremely cautious before hiring anybody. Others are even known to never submit your application and simply forge a refusal letter to send to you. Some members here advise hiring a member of the UK Law Society with experience in immigration; these are fully qualified UK lawyers. Their services won't come cheap though, and would burn through the funds you have saved for your trip.