10 Rules of Owning a House
So now you own a home, and we thought you would enjoy some rules of owning a house! Just what you wanted, right? Owning a home is a tremendous joy… and a big responsibility. Here are 10 rules home owners should live by.
1. Take care of your home
Experts recommend budgeting 1 to 3% of your home’s value for maintenance and repairs each year.
2. Build equity
Making an extra principal payment when possible can decrease the interest you pay over the life of your loan.
3. Make a good first impression
Keep your front entrance clear and welcoming. Curb appeal improves the neighborhood and enhances your home’s value.
4. Be properly insured
In most cases you only need to insure the replacement value of your home and personal property, not the land.
5. Love the neighborhood–not just the house
And if you’re not happy with your current neighborhood, start thinking and planning where to move next.
6. Make improvements
Statistics show updated kitchens and baths often make a difference in a sale.
7. Safety first
Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to ensure the security of your family.
8. Beat your bills
Improvements in the insulation of windows, doors, and storm doors can save energy costs and increase your home’s resale value.
9. Go neutral
If you’re thinking of moving in a year or so, choose light, neutral paint colors so there’s less work when you sell.
10. Know when it’s time to move
Is Your Family getting too big? Over time people often outgrow a house or neighborhood. If you’re thinking of making a change, please call or email to discuss the next steps.
Is It Time to Move?
Find out the value of your home: guelph-property-values.com
Great tips Andrew! Another one I’d like to pass along is to ensure the downspouts from your eavestroughs have the extensions on and are aimed away from your home. I have seen this many times, either the homeowner or landscaper removes the extensions and forgets to put them back on after mowing the lawn. You need to ensure that water is directed AWAY from the foundation so you can avoid basement floods, humid basements and even mould growing on your furniture! i reccomend doing an exterior check of your home once a week to ensure things like this are noticed and rectified immediately.
Very good tip! Often newly built homes will have the down spout extension strapped to the down spout on closing. The builders do this mainly because the landscaping in not complete and don’t want it to be damaged or dislodged when the landscaping is started. I have seen it still in the original spot 10 years later though. No-one tells a new home owner about this and many people never notice. So newly constructed homers, take the down spout off and connect it properly.