Maintaining your property can be rewarding for both your personal and financial well-being. If you are diligent in making the right home repairs over time, you will be living in a safer and healthier environment while improving the value of your property. To maintain your property well, you want to take a tip from some of our condominium associations who take an active role in making sure that their buildings are preserved and are safe for the residents in their community. Here are three tips to maintain your property.
- Start with an assessment of your property’s current condition. The best way to do this is to have a professional home inspection. When you are going through the due diligence process of buying your home, you will typically hire a professional home inspector to give you an accurate assessment of what some of the more immediate repairs are and also what deferred maintenance issues need to be dealt with over time. Once you have this comprehensive report, you then want to keep tabs on things that you can do to maintain your property over the next 20 to 30 years of ownership.
- Create a maintenance timeline for anticipated replacement of items around your home. There is usually a recommended useful life for various parts of your home. For example, water heaters may have a life of 8-12 years. Depending on the material of your roof and the conditions you live in, it may have of life between 20 to 30 years. The more detailed your maintenance timeline, the more prepared you will be.
- Budget monthly for home maintenance costs. Similar to what you would expect to pay in a maintenance fee if you lived in a condominium, have a monthly maintenance fee set aside in a separate savings account for your home. Knowing what you might have to spend over the next 5 to 10 years, set aside a monthly amount that will give you enough funds to pay for these anticipated expenses.
Although we refer to maintenance as an expense of repairing your home, it really should be looked at as an investment in your property. If you live in a place like Oahu where home values increase on average 5-6% per year, then you know that any additional improvements made over time will result in a better appraised value for then you decided to sell your property.
