What every new homeowner should know
Becoming a homeowner is an educational experience unto itself, but some lessons are better learned ahead of time. Whether you're preparing for an emergency or just budgeting for common household expenses, once you buy your first home, it pays to start thinking ahead. Here are some strategies to help every new homeowners stay on top of things.
Plan for landscaping expenses
Before my husband and I bought a house, we had rented homes where we were responsible for mowing the lawn. But the lawns were always small, and mowing only took 30 minutes. Our new backyard was three times the size of our previous backyard, and we decided to hire someone after realizing how arduous it would be to take care of it.
We pay a neighbor’s friend $35 to mow and edge the lawn. He comes between two and four times each month, from April to October, which comes out to roughly $700 for the season. That’s not a huge sum, but is significant and it’s also not an expense for which we had budgeted.
Lawn maintenance isn’t the only expense to consider. During our first winter, we had to buy snow shovels and ice salt. Last fall, I finally sprung for a leaf blower. If you hate weeding, trimming the bushes, or any other landscaping chores, then you’ll need to budget for hiring someone to take care of those, too.
Budget for repairs and maintenance
New homeowners usually remember to budget for internet, utilities, property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance. But they often forget to include repairs and maintenance expenses. A basic rule of thumb is to save 1% of the home’s purchase price each year. For example, if your home costs $200,000, you should save $2,000 a year or $166.66 a month.
It’s easy to forget about maintenance and repairs when you move in, especially if you bought a new or recently updated house. But a home is like a car—eventually, something will go wrong.
Since our house costed $180,000, my husband and I automatically save $1,800 a year or $150 a month in a separate savings account. We’ve used the funds to pay for surprise plumbing, heating and cooling repairs, along with regular expenses like having the gutters cleaned, replacing the knob and tube wiring or fixing the latch on our gate.
Create a list of good contractors
The worst part about having a pipe burst or a furnace malfunction during the winter isn’t how much it costs to fix—it’s trying to find someone to fix the problem quickly. There’s nothing worse than shivering inside your 50-degree house and frantically googling “HVAC repair near me.”
Learn from my mistakes and don't wait until something goes wrong to find a reputable repair person. You should have at least three options for each of the following:
Plumber
HVAC repairman
Electrician
As soon as you move in, go to your neighborhood’s NextDoor page or Facebook group to find local recommendations. That’s how we found most of our reliable options. Once you have a list, look up their Google reviews. I usually cross off anyone with less than a 4.5 rating.
Also, write down the phone number for your internet company. You’ll need to call and request a service visit if the internet goes down, and that number might be hard to find if you don’t have internet access.
The bottom line
Remember to give your budget extra padding during the first few months of homeownership. And before you buy a home, talk to your homeowner friends about surprise expenses that they didn’t anticipate. They may have specific suggestions for your city or region, like a snow blower if you live in Minnesota or mosquito spraying services if you live in the South.
If you have remodeling insight you would like to share, feel free to drop us an email at hello@getplunk.com or tag us @getplunk #plunktip on your next Instagram post! Plunk blogs are for informational and educational purposes only, and in no way is any of the data contained herein to be construed as financial, investment, or legal advice.
