Add A Repair Expense To Your Budget When Buying A House
Posted on: 10 September 2018
A lot of people will save up money for several years before they buy a house, but many individuals will end up buying a house and forgetting to budget in all the expenses they will need to cover after moving in. If you want to protect your finances and budget, you should try to factor in all the expenses you may encounter when buying a house, and one of these is the expense of maintenance and repairs.
Why this is so important
Many people end up moving into a new house only to find they forgot to budget for certain expenses and now are having trouble paying their bills. If you want to avoid having financial issues after buying a house, it is vital for you to budget for all the expenses you will encounter when you own a home. This will include your mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, as well as maintenance and repairs. When you add these bills to your budget, you can make sure you will be able to afford everything even after you have moved in.
The amount you should budget in
It is hard to determine how much you will need to spend for the maintenance and repairs needed in your new house, but a good rule of thumb is to budget in somewhere between 1% to 4% of the cost of your home for each year. This means if you bought a house for $200,000, you should figure in spending at least $2,000 to $8,000 per year for maintenance and repairs.
The types of maintenance and repair bills you may encounter
The types of maintenance and repairs your new house will need will vary, but you should expect to have unexpected repair bills pop up from time to time. For example, your furnace might stop working all of a sudden, and this could result in a bill of several hundred dollars. You might also find that your stove stopped working and you need to purchase a new one. You might also experience plumbing leaks, roof leaks, and other water-related problems in your house.
If you want to make sure that you can afford the house you buy and not have to borrow money when an extra expense arises, you should budget in some money for maintenance and repairs. If you have questions about the home-buying process or would like to tour homes for sale, contact a real estate agency today.
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