Ongoing Costs Of Owning A Home
Planning For Routine Home Maintenance
Principal and interest? Check. Taxes and insurance? Check. Home Maintenance? No problem, I'll get a home warranty! Many Kansas City home buyers think it's that simple, but in reality it's not. Although home warranties are an excellent idea when buying a home, most home buyers don't extend them beyond the first year. Even if the home warranty plan is extended, it's not going to take care of cleaning gutters or replacing a roof when it goes bad. It's also not going to replace that $1 furnace filter. And if you ignore that you could quickly be spending thousands of dollars replacing your furnace.
Deferred maintenance almost always leads to bigger issues, so using the logic that you'll deal with something when it becomes a problem is faulty logic. If you plan to hire a contractor or handyman to take care of maintenance items, you'll need to budget for it. Even if you plan to take care of maintenance issues on your own, you'll still need to buy the tools to do the work. More than once I've heard a buyer say they forgot they'll have to buy a lawn mower and shrub trimmers. Mowing the lawn, while also keeping grass and landscaping off your home's siding and A/C unit are just a couple of critical home maintenance items to consider.
Some other issues that nearly all homeowners have to deal with are changing batteries on smoke detectors, replacing light bulbs, keeping the gutters cleaned and hosing damaging winter salt off the driveway and garage floor. Most homeowners spend around 1% of their home's value annually on home maintenance. So budgeting for this can make a lot of sense. That way, when a moderate to big ticket repair rears its head, you'll be ready for it. Working to keep small issues from turning into much larger problems is the best possible strategy. So take immediate action at the first sign of dishwasher leaks, dust build-up under the refrigerator, cracked grout or caulk at baths, tubs and countertops, water heater leaks, foundation or basement floor cracks, window leaks, roof leaks and signs of termites or wood rot at the exterior of the home.
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