Welcome to Home Ownership! Let’s talk about all the ways you can prepare as you become homeowners. Whether you are a first time buyer or you’ve done it a few times, I’m here to tell you that within the first few months of living in your new home, stuff is going to happen. That is just the cost of home ownership. Here’s a few things you can do to help mitigate the chances of surprises.
Do a Home Inspection
Home inspections are recommended because they are a great tool to discover the majority of defects that might happen in the home. I would say about 85% of issues will be discovered during a home inspection.
Although some things might go undiscovered because the current owners’ furniture obscured something and Home Inspectors aren’t Superman with x-ray vision, some issues might not arise until after you move in. Keep in mind, your Inspector can’t predict the future. There is also the chance that if you are buying a vacant property that some systems might be a little rusty.
Issues might be laying dormant that will only come up after say the toilet has been flushed a dozen times, or the sprinklers run for the first time in awhile. Perhaps the house is under occupied. Meaning that the house is currently occupied by one person and a family of four is moving in. It’s not typical for the house to be running the dishwasher, shower and washing machine all at once. The kind of stress that a family might put a house under will reveal issues that are not evident while one person is occupying it. So I say all this to say that stuff will happen.
However, there are ways that you can prepare yourself for surprised and to help cover costs for what might need fixing.
Purchase a Home Warranty
Get a home warranty. These are policies that are in place to help repair or replace certain systems and appliances in the home if a defector failure is discovered while you’re living there.
Have a Solid List of Service Providers
Have a list of good, reliable service providers that you can call up if and when you need them. People like handymen, contractors, plumbers, electricians, window repair people etc. Having that list of people at your disposal, who you can quickly call to help solve a problem, is really going to eliminate a lot of stress.
Have a Good Agent
Your agent will have recommendations for home warranties, good service providers, a good home inspector, etc. A good real estate agent will generally have their own list of people that they have either personally used or recommended to a client that they highly recommend. The more people you have on your side that you can count on when surprised arise the better.
If you’re looking to start the house buying process or need a good vendor recommendation, schedule a call to chat with us!
