Just bought my first house, what are some lessons are tips to whatcha out for?

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1. If you don’t have any spiders in your house it was either recently cleaned or might have Radon. So check that.

2. 1. Your drains aren’t always clogged if they’re getting stopped up, sometimes it just takes some bleach down the drain to kill the colony of bacteria that grows around the drain.
   2. On that same note, when you’re cleaning your bathroom, use cleaners with bleach, everything else is a fucking waste of money.
   3. Clean your drier vent once a year to prevent possibly starting a fire.
   4. Set aside several hundred dollars every month into a separate account specifically for house repairs and improvements. When it comes time to replace the water heater, furnace, roof, floors, whatever, you’ll have the money there and not needing to put it on credit.
   5. Buy tools to fix your own shit as you need them, the initial investment will be a bit but in the long run it’s A LOT cheaper than hiring someone.
   6. It’s cool to do your own basic electric and plumbing. This basically boils down to making sure you turn the breakers off before you replace a switch or outlet and replacing sinks. Though if you’re like me you’ll eventually drill through your water main trying to hang a TV in the garage and need to cut out the drywall and replace a section of pipe.

3. On average, you will spend 1-2% of the home’s value in maintenance per year.

   Most years, it will be far less than that. Some paint here. A new light switch there. Some minor plumbing. That sort of thing. Some years, it will be right around that value because you need to replace flooring or an appliance. And once in a while, it will be far, far more when you have to replace something like a roof or windows or a furnace. If you average it all out, it will come out around 1-2%.

4. If it’s an older house, have the outlets checked (or do it yourself if you know how to do it safely and what to look for).

   I’ve had to replace old outlets in my parents’ place a few times because they wear out and get fried (arc flash).

5. You have 30 years to finish all your projects.

6. Make list of things that need to be winterized. Such as turning off outside taps and drain them. Make sure you have salt, & shovels. Change the oil in the snow blower or mix that oil and gas now. Clean out the garage to get the car in it.

7. Manage water, and don’t let it get anywhere it’s not supposed to be. This means everything from leaking plumbing, to roof leaks, leaks in siding and windows from wind blown rain, clogged gutters and downspouts, and drainage around the perimeter and foundation of the house. Always makes sure water has a nice easy path to get where it’s going without ponding.

   Water will cause a lot of damage unchecked.

8. Unless the breakers are all new, buy a couple spares and keep them around. You don’t want to make a trip to home depot when you get a blackout from a breaker blowing.

9. A lot of people try to over-pay their mortgage each month to pay it off faster but the average return on the stock market is about 7% per year. If that’s more than your mortgage interest rate, you’re better off putting a little aside each month and investing it in something like an index ETF. Just don’t look at it for a while, ignore short term ups and downs and consider it a “rainy day fund” for emergencies.

   If you don’t think you have the fiscal discipline for this, that’s ok. Try over-paying your mortgage each month to build up equity. You can go to a local credit union once you have some equity built up and get a home equity line of credit in an emergency too.

10. Take care of maintenance when needed. Don’t let it deteriorate from deferred maintenance.

11. Pro-tip: when solicitors knock on your door trying to sell you solar panels or whatever, say that you’re a renter and they’ll never come back

12. invest in a basic tool box learn how to do basic jobs like changing fuses and faucet washers etc. saves you calling a pro and his rate to do simple 5 min jobs

13. 1. Learn basic repairs (outlets, dryer, faucets, drains) it will save you a ton in the long run
    2. The first house clean after everything is moved in and setup sets the expected state of the house. Set a high bar
    3. Never mix chemicals unless you know what your doing and even then think long and hard
    4. Invest the extra you’d pay on a mortgage and use it as a rainy day/ pay off extra occasionally
    5. Don’t ignore stuff that’s wrong. It will keep adding up
    6. Most appliances can be fixed relatively easily so learn the basics there as well
    7. If you want to renovate or remodel. Have an exact plan of what you want changed and know exactly why

14. Get a dehumidifier for your basement asap!

15. Better be wealthy or handy. If you have kids, they will destroy your house more slowly, but with as much certainty as a tornado. Don’t put off plumbing repairs or septic pumping. If you have gutters, get a shop vac and a gutter cleaning kit from Amazon so you can clean them from ground level. It’s the best $30 tool ever.

    Cheap toilets, sinks, and fixtures are cheap. I’ve commonly found mediocre fit and finish from the low end brands and occasional reliability/durability problems. Buy once, cry once.

    Lowe’s and Home Depot are not your friend. If you have specialty stores nearby, they are often a better deal for things like flooring, tile, decor. Also, anywhere with an indoor lumber yard (Lowe’s, Depot) has garbage lumber. Real lumberyards cost a little more but the wood is so much higher quality. Take this as advice from a former employee of both Lowe’s and HD.

    Hardwood or laminate floor is a thousand times easier to care for than carpet so if you’re thinking of making the change, do it and don’t look back.

16. Have your furnace serviced. Yearly. And not by the company that sells you the fuel. Someone who has no connection to that company.

    Check all your exterior doors. Make sure they were flashed properly. If you have a connected deck make sure ledger flashing was installed.

    X2 on the basic electrical and plumbing. You tube is a great resource. You can generally find someone with a walkthrough video and then decide if it’s within your capabilities and do you want to tackle that.

    X2 on putting money aside. Know how old your roof and furnace are, come up with a timeline for when they will need replacing, how much money you need for that and start putting it aside.

    Know were any buried lines are. I had our house built so I know where there will line runs, electric etc.

    If you have a septic tank have it pumped every couple of years. Know where the cover is. Dig it out yourself if you can- you’ll save yourself money.

17. A heat pump works in both directions very efficiently and if you live in a climate that only needs one direction, you never know so it doesn’t hurt.

18. Everything always takes longer to do then you anticipate. And relatedly, its almost always better and cheaper to hire someone else to do it..