Top 10 Tips for New Homeowners
First time home-owners will experience some of the greatest highs and lows of their lives in the first few years immediately following their move. My first big thrill was walking to my mailbox and realizing I didn't need a key to unlock it, as I did at our previous townhouse. The first week was positively heady as I basked in the enjoyment of our new home, eating breakfast on the porch, enjoying the spring foliage, meeting our very hospitable neighbors, and experiencing many other small pleasures too numerous to mention. Here are my top 10 tips for enjoying your new home to the maximum and making it as positive an experience as possible:
1. Recognize it is a stressful time, even as it is also exhilarating. Realize it is also a stressful time for your spouse, kids, and pets. Take the time to sit with your family and talk. Maybe your kids are scared of meeting new kids. Maybe your wife really hates the color of the kitchen. Maybe you're stressed about making the mortgage payments. You don't have to solve all these problems today, but talking about them will go a long way to lessening the stress. Make it a point to say something positive, such as "I really like having room for a garden" before any complaint, even if the master bathroom is hopelessly dated.
2. Get to know the neighbors and neighborhood. If this is your first home, you'll be shocked at the way neighbors treat you in a non-transient neighborhood. Even if you don't realize these will be your friends for the next 20 years, and even if you don't think you'll like them much, good neighbors make a house infinitely more enjoyable. Our first day in our new house, one neighbor mowed my lawn, another offered his pickup truck, and a third said my kids could have free reign of the woods behind his yard, (provided I promised not to sue). Take a walk around the neighborhood. Wave to everyone you see. Introduce yourself to total strangers on your block. It does wonders to head off problems when someone's music is too loud or their dog barks at night or wanders into your yard.
3. Find playmates for your kids immediately. Nothing makes a new house so enjoyable as your family enjoying it. If your kids are whining when you're trying to unpack and plunge the toilet, nerves can get jangled. Kids will be happy if you help them find a playmate or two within walking distance at a neighbor who you trust. This does wonders for their sense of independence and self-esteem. Likewise, find them a good place to bike or rollerskate, or a park to play in. Be sure to accompany young children until they know the neighborhood and you know the neighbors.
4. Rome wasn't built in a day. Unless you're moving into a brand new, custom-built house, you'll have a long list of things you'll want to do around the house. You might want to recarpet or retile a floor, paint inside and out, plant a garden, repave the driveway, and more. Plus, if moving from a smaller home, you'll need more furniture, window treatments, etc. First, take a deep breath (see item 1). Remind yourself that you bought a house to enjoy it, not to be a slave to it. Whatever "wants" you have on the list may soon be overtaken by "needs" such as a new roof, water heater, or refridgerator. Most people take at least 5 years to "settle in" to their house. If you tackle only one major item a month, that adds up to 60 major items over 5 years. Don't try to do everything at once. When we moved in, paving the gravel driveway was my number one priority. It quickly dropped to about tenth on the list, after things like fixing the sump pump, painting the kids' rooms, and buying a lawn tractor. A leisurely pace allows you to take advantage of the seasonality of certain items. You can do some indoor carpentry during the winter, some yard work in the spring, paint the outside in the summer, and insulate the attic in the fall.
5. Conserve your capital. Owning a house, especially an older house that hasn't had its major systems---plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc.--updated, can be unbelievably expensive. Along with direct costs like the mortgage, there are many indirect costs. Maybe you're planning on having kids, which not only increases expenses but means you might have to buy a new minivan. Plus, you might need to increase your life insurance (not to mention your homeowner's insurance to cover your new furnishings). If a spouse has to return to work, you might have to hire a nanny or pay for daycare. While you were happy to live like college students while renting, now you'll want real furniture, real dishes, and that big screen TV. Furnishing a room can cost $5,000 or more. The list goes on and on. Our consumer society can influence you to the degree where you find yourself rapidly in debt. Don't incur a lot of consumer debt or tap a home equity line of credit except for major necessities, such as a new roof or heating system.
6. Educate yourself. Owning a house will require you to become at least passingly familiar with many topics you might have previously ignored. You might have to learn about landscaping, drainage, pest control, heating, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, etc. Even if you hire contractors to do the work, a little education makes you a wiser consumer of services. Don't get in over your head, but don't be afraid to tackle the smaller jobs either. For example, replacing a sump pump might be a simple matter of swapping out an identical model for the broken one. On the other hand, doing roof work or electrical work can be extremely hazardous if you are not properly trained. Pick your comfort level and stick to it, increasing it incrementally as experience warrants. For example, I have a simple rule of thumb: I'm not doing anything that could get me killed, and I'm not cutting any holes in the outside of my house. So when we needed a new electrical panel, I hired an electrician. When we wanted to install a new bedroom window and a new front door with a sidelight, I hired an experienced contractor.
7. Don't worry, be happy. Buying a house usually entails registering a deed in your name with the county clerk. If you borrowed money from a bank or other lender, a lien will also be filed showing the amount you owe and to whom. You'll get mail from people you never heard of offering you life insurance, mortgage insurance, security alarms, and more. Don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed or paranoid. We live in a neighborhood where people don't even lock their doors. Spending an extra $25/month for an alarm security monitoring service seems like a waste of money. And I throw out all the financial and insurance offers. Moving into your first house is stressful (see item 1). Don't let yourself be taken advantage of during a vulnerable time.
8. Take advantage of the offers available, but only those you need. There is an unbelievable array of products and services available to homeowners, and many businesses offer discounts to new homeowners in order to get their business. There is no rush. You do not need to buy furniture just because there is a close-out sale. There will be something on sale every month in perpetuity. Buy only what you really like and really need, not because it is on sale. The major national home repair stores (Lowes and Home Depot) offer a 10% discount just for the asking. You can find the coupon in the change of address kit from the post office, by visiting their web sites, or just by asking the manager on duty. Simply say, "I just moved, I need tons of stuff for my house, and I've heard there is a 10% discount available for new customers who recently moved." That said, don't buy anything you won't use within three months. See items 4 and 5. I have had a garage full of lumber and fiberglass insulation for almost 20 months. I would have been better off waiting until I needed it.
9. Keep a house log/journal. This really should be priority #1. If you don't already have a notebook dedicated to your house, get one immediately. I like the engineering notebooks available at college bookstores (sometimes called lab notebooks or computation notebooks). I have the Avery "Computation Notebook" number 43-648 (11 3/4" X 9 1/2"). The pages are numbered, convenient for cross-references or for use in a table of contents, and are made of graph paper, convenient for making sketches. I keep everything in my notebook, including contractor contact info, prices of materials, a log of all contractors that have come to the house, model numbers for major appliances and replacement parts, and a million other details. That reminds me...set up filing cabinet with individual folders for house items such as receipts, home improvement information, taxes, legal documents, etc.
10. Appreciate what you have. There is no point in owning a house if it makes you miserable. Enjoy the privacy, the yard, the neighborhood, the weather, your spouse, and your kids. If you and your spouse didn't agree on the house in the first place, immediately discuss any remaining tensions and come to some agreement. Maybe you resented her picking the bathroom tile, but she is happy to let you use the basement as a workshop. Regardless, being on the same page, or at least cooperating, will do wonders for your enjoyment of your life and your home. After disagreeing on every house we saw, my wife and I finally put in an offer on a house I wasn't thrilled with. My wife really wanted the house, but she was wise enough to say, "If you're going to hold this against me the rest of our lives, let's just walk away," so we did. A week later we found our dream house, which we both loved and immediately agreed was worth the wait. A few months later we had moved in. In our first week there, when the basement flooded, we were still so giddy that we thought, "How romantic, our first flood!" It certainly made the mopping easier. (Oh, and one last bonus tip, store everything in the garage, not the basement, until you have spent a few months in different weather conditions making sure the basement is water tight, that the sump pump works, etc.)
posted on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 at 14:50 | path: /house | perma link
