When it comes to home ownership, one of the things that many people often dread are the new responsibilities that they have (sometimes unknowingly) signed up for. Owning a home or real estate comes with a lot of responsibility and requires an investment of money and time to sustain over the long term. Without regular maintenance, homes will eventually start to fall apart leading to costly home repairs and a value reduction.
There are several reasons why performing maintenance is essential. Performing regular maintenance on your home or property is a vital part of maintaining your investment and ensuring that it becomes an asset to you rather than a liability. Repairs or replacement of many common household items will eventually be required, however, with a little planning and foresight, doing regular maintenance will go a long way to saving you money and reducing your level of stress
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Home Maintenance Saves you MoneyHome Maintenance Saves you Money
While it’s true, maintenance takes some money, dedication and hard work, in the long run, you save much more money than if you didn’t do maintenance. Why is this? According to reports, for every dollar you spend on preventative maintenance around the home, you save approximately $100 in future repairs.
That’s because taking care of small problems now (a dirty filter or clogged drain) makes it, so you don’t have the problem worsen over time and develop into a larger issue (a burned out HVAC motor or burst pipe.) Those bigger problems that tend to crop up after not maintaining a home cost significantly more than a new furnace filter every month or so.
Home Maintenance Increases your Home’s ValueHome Maintenance Increases your Home’s Value
When you drive a new car off of the lot, it immediately drops in value. The resale value decreases the longer you drive the car and the older it becomes. This principle doesn’t work the same for a home. The longer you own a home, the more you could increase its worth. Of course, home values have to do with the market and not solely what you do to the house, but you can still have a direct effect on your home’s value by maintaining your house.
How does this work? If you decided to put your home up for sale tomorrow, and you hadn’t maintained any of your systems and appliances, you would find that the home inspection report would probably show that your home had a lot of problems or potential problems. Buyers would either want a discounted rate depending on the issues that your home may have or ask you to replace or repair systems that may give them trouble in the future. Either way, you won’t be getting as much money out of the sale of the home as it could potentially be worth.
Home Warranties and Home MaintenanceHome Warranties and Home Maintenance
Home warranties and home insurance don’t generally cover for breakdowns caused by lack of maintenance. You’d be hard-pressed to find a home insurance company that would cover for flooding in your attic or roof if it turns out you never cleaned out your gutters, which caused the flood. The same principle applies to a home warranty: if you never changed the filters for a year on your HVAC system and the fan burned out from too much strain, a home warranty generally wouldn’t cover the repairs or replacement.
Why does a home warranty make you maintain your systems/appliances? You have to complete maintenance on your systems and appliances to keep them in good working condition and to extend their lifespans. Most home warranty companies only repair or replace systems and appliances if the homeowner has tried to maintain them
Performing Maintenance Results in Peace of MindPerforming Maintenance Results in Peace of Mind
The final reason that performing annual maintenance on your home is that it will bring you peace of mind. When you know that things have been maintained and that they are working well, you will have a lot less anxiety about the possibility of having to deal with a significant repair.
With proper maintenance, it is also likely that you will be more prepared for a time when something eventually does break and require a repair. Having the peace of mind offered by keeping a home maintained will do many great things for both your health and your wallet.