I am my own landlord. I’ve owned my home for the past seven years and I’m hoping to never rent again (unless living in a foreign country). There are a couple of things that I’ve learned the hard way along the bumpy road of home ownership and the most important one is this: if you buy a home, you must have a home savings account.
Sh$t’s gonna break!
Is that clear enough for you? Let’s go through my list of things that I’ve had to pay for in the past 7 years with a specific look at THIS SPRING.
1.) Fixed Cabinet doors-one was listing to the side, the other was put on backwards! Who puts a cabinet door on backwards? Sadly, I didn’t notice this when buying my property during the inspection. I think we all just assumed the cabinets were ok. Well, over time it drove me CRAZY. So, this year when the other door began to list it was time to get that taken care of. Cost: $150 When: Spring 2014
2.) Replaced shower handles and shower head-I couldn’t replace my shower nozzle because the shower arm was old. I tried to take it off myself but couldn’t. Also, the shower handles were gross. I couldn’t stand them anymore. Cost: $150 When: Spring 2014
3.) Kitchen Faucet-Stupid single handle faucets kept breaking. There was a leak and it was stripped. I had to buy another faucet (used a gift card) and have someone come in and replace it for me. Cost: $30 for the faucet and $70 for the labor. When: Spring 2014 By the way, this is the second time I’ve replaced the faucet since I’ve lived in the tiny place.
4.) Oven-The oven stopped working and the gas wouldn’t turn on. Clearly, I couldn’t fix it. So, I had someone come in. Cost: $185 When: Spring 2014 They replaced a wire, and some other technical item that was beyond my scope of knowledge. Am happy because I can broil things again!
5.) Repainted Bedroom-I did it myself J But, I had to buy the paint, primer, and brushes. I think everything cost about $80 When: Spring 2014
6.) Shower Snaked-Seemed like there was a clog in the shower. So, I had to get that snaked. Cost $115 (I think)
Previous Items that were fixed prior to 2014
7.) Hot Water Heater-A couple of years ago my hot water heater shorted. Luckily, it didn’t start a fire. I came home and it smelled like smoke or barbeque. I couldn’t figure it out until a couple of days later and my water turned ice cold. Did I also mention that I had the worse case of flu that I’ve had in years? So, I had to replace it because my friends were coming from England in a week for a 2 week visit and then we were going on a ski trip in Breckenridge, Colorado. Cost for new heater: $500 (?) maybe more When: Spring 2011. At the same time I dealt with issue #8
8.) Fridge-When I first purchased my place it had an avocado green fridge á la 1970’s. While there is nothing wrong with the 70’s it was 2007. I ended up replacing the fridge the same week that I replaced the hot water heater. Cost: $385 When: Spring 2011. By the way, apparently the old fridge wasn’t working properly because I had been dealing with low-grade stomach issues for years. They cleared up after I replaced the fridge!
9.) Washing Machine Leak-One day there was a mysterious puddle of water in my bedroom (I have an upright in my bedroom). Well, it was the washing machine. Had to get a new part put in. Cost: $385 When: 2009
10.) Light Fixture–My light fixture blew out. I had the old fixture fixed and changed the light covers. Cost: $150 When: 2009 (I think)
Upcoming items:
11.) Windows need to be replaced-My bedroom windows don’t open. I really hate it because I really love fresh air. I am in the process of getting quotes the highest quote has been $1200. For 2 freaking windows.
12.) Carpet needs to be replaced-My carpet is awful and I hate carpet. I will be putting in laminate. I prefer real wood but the tiny place is a garden level unit. So laminate is a better option. One of the quotes has been $850. Getting this stuff done isn’t cheap!
13.) Sliding Doors in Bathroom and Kitchen-I have exposed shelving and I hate it. I will be putting in sliding doors to hide the shelves. Cost for both: $500
14.) Door handle and lock replaced-It’s time to replace my door handle and lock. Then cost will probably be around $125
15.) Shower tiles-Are 1970’s mustard yellow. Enough said. Will try to do this one and someone has kindly offered to help me with this project. I plan on taking them up on it!
Did I mention that in all that time I never had a dedicated home savings account? I should mention that I was dealing with stabilizing my finances during those years. If my place wasn’t so cheap I probably should have held off and waited on making a home purchase until I had more money set aside. I didn’t and even though I coughed up cash for most of these things, I did charge a couple of items.
So, I hope that I’ve impressed upon everyone the need to open up a home savings account. Owning a home can be wonderful experience but it comes with its own set of special challenges. You will end up replacing things the entire time you own your place. It’s a given. Plan for it and just put $100 a month into an account dedicated to home repairs. In a lot of financial circles you’re encouraged to save at least 1% of the purchase price and place it into a dedicated home account. I will have that account fully funded by November. I will continue to add to the account and then have a lot of the bigger items done in February when handymen/home improvement people are looking for work! Better bargaining for me.
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Yep, I couldn’t agree more. Rule of thumb is 3% of your home’s value into a fund. And some of what you did was cosmetic, too!
3% might be the Canadian norm. We always hear 1% Stateside! Honestly, 3% sounds a lot better.
It is amazing how much all the little things add up. Just buying the tools to fix some of these problems adds a significant cost as well. It all depends on what the condition of the house is what the repairs may be. We bought a $50,000 house that was in OK condition, but it was 80 years old, I bet we spent around $2,000 a year on repairs there. Overall its a challenge to decide what to do now, what to put on hold, and what to just leave as is, even if it isn’t perfect.
Honestly, I’ve been pretty fascinated at how things seem to break all at the same time! While some of the things I took care of were cosmetic, quite frankly they needed to be taken care of. Who wants to live in a place that’s falling apart around them? I don’t. But, if I had set aside $100 a month since I purchased my place I would have been able to replace the windows and floor and have money left over.
Our place is new enough that we haven’t hit any of these major costs yet… but there are a few things that will need some TLC in the next several years, that’s for sure. Our gas fireplace has been working intermittently and we’ve also had problems with the A/C in our furnace system. Here’s hoping we can get them sorted out this year for good. (They have both been worked on now.)
The building my place is in is from 1925. Ironically, all of the new stuff was what was breaking! Even with those costs I’m still spending a substantially lower amount on housing than the average person in Denver-and I’m ok with that!