My husband and I are trying to build a home maintenance budget for 2008. It seems like we could spend virtually all of our earnings on this money pit — help!! When we purchased the home, neither our real estate agent nor mortgage broker advised us as to how much money we should budget for our annual maintenance needs.
P.S. We know how to do very little of this work ourselves ... maybe we should have kept on renting!
Signed, Maintain Me
A: Dear Maintain Me,
Before I prioritize your maintenance needs, let me first address a couple of your other comments. Buyers are sometimes up-sold to the point where there is no margin for error within their budget. An experienced real estate and/or mortgage broker will work to assist you in planning for your annual home maintenance budget needs. As a buyer, you should ask the professionals you are dealing with to assist you in determining how much you should budget for home maintenance costs. There is little worse than getting into a steep mortgage and then finding out you do not have the money needed to maintain your substantial investment.
Should you have kept on renting? With the limited information I have available, it is impossible to say. However, lacking the time, tools or talent is not necessarily a confinement to renting throughout the ages. Here are some ways to better prioritize your home maintenance needs:
• Typically, a house becomes a money pit because of extensive repairs. Please understand that a cause for a majority of home repairs is the lack of preventative maintenance. It is estimated that home repairs cost 10 times more than maintaining.
• Safety: Your first consideration should always be safety. Thousands of serious injuries happen in and around homes every year, and most of these injuries could have been prevented. When considering safety, always remember to double check manufactured products for safety as well.
• Systems: Roofing, electrical, plumbing, water, septic/sewer, heating, air conditioning, security, storm water run off, etc.
• Doors: Typically there are dozens of doors in a home — cabinet, appliances, exterior, interior, pet, etc. Maintaining doors can extend their years of use, improve their safety and enhance the overall appearance of your home.
• Windows: Clean, caulk, paint, seal, etc.
• Siding: Replacing most siding can cost hundreds of dollars per square foot. Properly maintaining your home’s siding can greatly reduce the need to replace it. Look for loose, broken or improperly treated siding, and pay particular attention to the northern side.
• Flooring: Wear patterns require the most amount of maintenance so keep floors clean and protected.
Because of limited space, I am unable to further elaborate in this article. If you or any reader would like me to zero in on a particular home maintenance item please write and I will do so.
Kaile Warren of Windham is CEO/Founder of the national handyman franchise Rent-A-Husband. Kaile is also a national home improvement expert for the CBS Early Show, HGTV and Parade Magazine. When not on the road or working he spends his time teaching his newly adopted white shepherd, Maintenance, how-to ... Send your questions for Kaile to editor@themaineswitch.com.