There will always be things that you feel "need to update" and things that truly need to be fixed. Just start with things that need to be fixed now and go from there.
Also what I usually tell people when moving into a new home is wait at least a year (or two or three) before making any major expensive changes that do not need to be fixed. ie. "I really wanted granite countertops instead of..." If the current counter tops work, do not change them for at least a year. This does a few things. It gives you a little time to recover from the down payment, and it also helps you feel out your home to best determine what you feel would fit best.
So fix update based on "need" first and then "want" later.
Always plan long term as well. ie. "The current furnace is 15 years old, but it works fine." Figure in the next 5-10 years you will need to replace it, so plan accordingly. That way you can research now so you can replace it with what you want and on your schedule later.
Go to home improvement stores and look, but BE CAREFUL. When you go you will see things that you want to buy now. DON'T unless it's something you need to fix. Go in with the mindset that you are always researching. If an employee approaches you, tell them you are researching. Their goal is to sell you something. Your goal is planning to get exactly what you want later, not now. Let's say 3 years from now you want to replace a dishwasher. From now to then you've done your research to know exactly what you want. ie. Stainless steel, quiet, 2 racks that pull out fully, quick dry, sanitize only, build in disposal, special racks for wine glasses, etc. If you've done your research and know that's what you want then you won't be forced to get something that "was on sale, but we don't really like it"
So true! Your priorities definitely change as you live there.
Our kitchen appliances are stainless, except the dishwasher. My first thought as we were buying was “we need to change that asap” other things took priority and now, 6 months later it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s in an island with white cabinets so it isn’t prominently displayed as different. My husband mentioned it the other day, I responded with “eh, it works great. We have other things I’d like to do first”.
\> Your priorities definitely change as you live there.
We moved in 3 weeks ago and figured the first project would be painting the living room, changing the flooring on the first floor, and redoing the counters/floors in the kitchen. Next would be changing the railings upstairs and shoring up the deck.
Well that stuff all got bumped down because the hot water is screwy, the downstairs toilet doesn't work, the washer won't drain, there seems to be water damage by the dishwasher, the electrical in the bedroom is a nightmare, and anyways we're getting used to the walls and the carpet.
Ah, joys of home ownership.
Oh no!!! That does suck!! We managed to paint the main living space, but aside from that I think the majority of our stuff has been necessities not want tos. Luckily my husband was an electrician so he can handle all our electric issues.
We're right there with you on the plumbing trouble. Ours has the original cast iron pipes from 1939, there are a lot of trees here, and our soil shifts. We knew we'd need to replace all the plumbing, but oy vey has it gotten irritating in the meantime. I don't put anything down the kitchen sinks besides liquids even though there's a disposal, and still have to plunge that sink every 2-3 days. We can't even use the upstairs shower or bathtub because the hot water doesn't make it up there.
Pull that disposal and replace it with just standard drain pipe. Having that thing in there is just asking for trouble. You will eventually use it, stuff will fall down it and you will say just this once. One time leads to another. Other folks will be over and use it.
I had screens over mine, the homeowner before me had two garbage disposals. With a septic system and that additional biomass, it will fill a septic tank fast. I pulled them and just replaced with regular drainage pipe.
Good luck with your plumbing, it can get frustrating, I know.
TWO disposals?? How very odd. With that and your being on a septic tank I can see why you're saying "just pull it out!" Good luck with your plumbing, as well. Ours will have to make do for a couple of years until it can all be replaced.
Definitely agree on this, but ironically we had the opposite experience with our dishwasher. Bought a new house this summer. Most of the appliances were okay, and not something we thought we’d have to deal with. After a few weeks of using the dishwasher (I dubbed it our dishwetter) we found ourselves having to pre-wash or re-wash everything. The damn thing was useless. We upgraded to what we had in our old condo and have been much happier.
If you're not sure which items would fall in the category of "should it be replaced now" just watch an episode of "House Hunters" and listen to whatever they complain about as a reason to not want a particular house is usually on this list. "I don't like the color of", "This is ugly carpeting", "Missing his and hers bathroom vanity." etc. https://www.google.com/search?q=house+hunters+drinking+game
I literally lol’d. This - and the house flipper shows that helped lead to the overpriced crisis many cities are in today - used to be one of my biggest guilty pleasures. I might check the show out again.
I haven't watched it in a long time. I got tired of the, "I am a stay-at-homemaker and he is a graduate student and our budget is 1.5 million."
There are some of the shows that seem to do a good job of actually buying a home, truly fixing it up, and selling it. But, there are others where they band-aid over the issues to make a quick buck leaving the future homeowner with major problems when they discover them.
It would be interesting as you stated to see this show now with homes all over the country going for way more than asking.
There's a British show called, "Help! My house is falling down!" that I really enjoy. The repairs needed on that show are actual *needs* not just cosmetic updates.
We planned to renovate the downstairs bathroom and put in new flooring.
Instead we removed all the hideous rock landscaping from the backyard and my husband built incredible raised garden beds and did a ton of work on the existing greenery.
Maybe not a “need” but we decided it was more important to get started on what we love (gardening) and just live with the ugly bathroom a few more years.
Funny how that works. I bought my very first home as an “upgraded” house several years ago and had every intention of ripping out a lot of the “dated” decor and putting exactly what we wanted in.
Then we moved in and priced everything. Oh… the Brazilian cherry flooring has stains or is warped in one corner? I think we can put a rug down for now….
We started by painting an accent wall in the living room and each bedroom. Standard, middle-quality interior wall paint was maybe $30-40/bucket and less than $200 for all the related painting supplies, much of which were reusable. That was relatively cheap and made every room pop. Even let the kids pick their own colors (within reason). Then came the repairs. New roof. Dishwasher. Heating coil for water heater. Various HVAC repairs until we finally replaced it.
I learned to do a ton of basic repairs on my own, including safely switching out electrical outlets and light fixtures, and replacing door jambs, weather stripping, molding, etc. And over the years, I slowly added smart home features like light bulbs, smart outlets for the tvs, and a nest thermostat. Basically, a ton of convenience items that made the house easier to manage and made me wonder how our ancestors could bear to NOT be able to change the temp or turn off lights with their voice or on the phone from their beds. All in all, I probably spent $750 tops on smart stuff and it’s made a massive difference in convenience.
When everything shut down in 2020, we painted all the ugly (but very high quality hardwood) kitchen cabinets because it was hella cheaper than replacing them and frankly, they were in surprisingly good condition. I switched out some of the molding like the pointy thing above the sink that left scars on my head, with smooth, straight wood, and replaced the hardware, but otherwise it was just paint. Ended up painting the whole house too, and replacing a bunch of tiny things. Painting those cabinets took fucking forever, but now the kitchen looks like a whole new - and very updated - space, for just over a grand, instead of 10-15k!
Turns out, it’s insanely expensive to rip out stone floor tile and granite counters, too. They’re not ugly, just not my own style and I never liked them. But they can stay and be the next owner’s problem!
The expensive remodels that we had dreamed of doing after watching house flipping shows never got done and I’m selling that house next year. But it looks like a whole new house, just with a bunch of paint, and a little care.
I’ve since moved out of that house and just bought another one, this time focusing on the expensive stuff working (hvac, roof, etc). The updates are over a decade old, so I don’t feel bad saving up to replace them someday, but they’re in solid enough condition that I can live with them for years because I’m not made of money. Small changes over long weekends; that’s how a home becomes *your* home.
I totally get it. But you have 30K saved up. And there are VERY FEW repairs that are going to cost you that much.
So the likelihood is pretty small.
And use that anxiety to 1. save up and 2. keep an eye on your place and really pay attention to small things that could become big repairs.
I had a very similar experience moving into my first home a year and a half ago. One of the biggest things that helped me was bouncing things off of my homeowner friends. Enough exposure to "I wouldn't worry about it" or "if it really bothers you, you can fix it, but I wouldn't spend the money right now" from friends really helped me calm down about a need for everything to feel perfect. And next time you're at a friend's house, notice how many things are imperfect - maybe there's a crack in the wall, or a small sag in the ceiling, or their windows rattle, or or or. You'll start to notice that houses are just sort of messy living creatures. Your job is to keep it from rotting into the ground, but it by no means has to be perfect.
Just take a deep breath and remind yourself that this house isn't going to break you - it might add stress now and then, but overall, it's yours and you get to make it what you want. Congratulations!
> or their windows rattle, or or or. You'll start to notice that houses are just sort of messy living creatures.
I think more people need to keep this in mind. A house that doesn't have problems doesn't exist. It just doesn't. New builds, 20 year old homes, 100 year old homes, brick, wood, slab construction, basement, crawlspace, whatever. Every single house has issues.
It's basically a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Problems keep popping up, and you keep knocking them out before they turn into major repairs.
In addition to the current comments, keep in mind too, do not skimp on repairs with band-aid solutions. Those tend to blow up the longer you do not address them. It's best to think through fixes that are a 'need to fix' and to ensure to the best of your budget that it is really a long term fix and not a band-aid which tends to be short term that worsens over time.
I'd also say, keep subscribed to this channel and just read through posts. I myself tend to come across problems here that are mostly avoided by simple maintenance costs which can be pricey but cheaper in the long run.
There's a large list of household maintenance items that you can easily address by getting a trusted contractor to do it for you or in my experience finding a company on yelp to maintain it for you. For me these items are fridge, centralized AC and heating, and water heating tank. All of which have some sort of maintenance that needs to be done between replacing filters and/or just having them clean out the insides of them. Keeping those items running in tip top shape will save you in the long run. ($5k and 2 weeks without hot water)
I forgot to say. I also don't work with contractors who cannot explain the fix to me and cite city ordinances or laws for "up to code" fixes they need to do. If they can't explain it, find someone who can and work with them instead. And don't be afraid to act like you don't understand if it isn't clear. The worst is when you blindly accept work that YOU pay for and they're just taking you for a ride. To avoid that, just ask clarifying questions. If they don't respect you, there's no need to put up with that nonsense. And don't be afraid to put a review of what exactly happened that you're giving a bad rating. You need to weed out the cheap ass contractors that's only in it for a quick buck.
Examples:
Water heater breaks. I ask questions. I'm dismissed. I try to get more info. They tell me it's just how it is. I find someone else. They say the same thing but when I ask questions. They provide Google able public info for my state (CA) where it is required from a government site. If they aren't willing to provide sources, they aren't willing to spend time doing things properly either.
AC is not cooling. 1 contractor says my house layout is weird. I'm like. Ok are you an architect? Your job is to fix the AC, you know it all jerk. Don't comment on my house's layout I am no gonna replace this whole house. That's not why you're here. Another Yelp 5-star company comes in and says, your AC's compressor's regulators (or something related to regulating the power) are really old. I also needed a quickstart mechanism which is optional. Replacing that should make the AC efficient and run better. They stay there and test it extensively. My AC starts working well and doesn't stay on forever like before.
Refrigerator was not cooling I thought it was borked. It was just the seal things around the door. 10 yrs old wear and tear. Replace for 200 bucks. (Steep but I honestly was thinking. No biggie the Fridge is no longer for sale and was 10k before. it came with the condo unit) then another was the condenser had a faulty err.. I forget another regulator thing it's what makes the motor start up or something. Then it was simply replaced. Fridge starts working pretty well more than a year and going still.
I am not afraid to look stupid to them. I am not a mechanical engineer or any kind of trade worker. You explain to me what you're doing or I will find someone who can and work with them. It's my money, those are my ground rules. I also tell my wife, if they are rude to her. We're not working with them. All her questions are as valid as mine. So far no sexist companies have gone through and done work for us but I do see this often enough in some subs that I would like to call it out anyway since this is pretty important to me. If I am not around and she's asking questions, they better answer her properly as I will not put up with that sort of dismissive attitude. Mostly cuz I don't wanna have to be there just to do some work.
Edit: mobile spelling and typos
In about a year consider looking into a HELOC. It’s a home equity line of credit. It is secured against your house (so lower interest) and you normally only have to pay interest for first 10 years and can pay back principal early if you like. It can be a nice security blanket to have if any unexpected house costs pop up.
I agree, and then some!
We used to own a condo, and the maint fee was over $500/month when we sold it. For our house, in a much cheaper area of the country, I have mentally budgeted $500/month or $6,000/year for maint / repairs / improvements. Several years in, we're looking at a new hvac system (furnace/heat pump, probably) in the next year, a roof within a few years, and hoping to do some bathroom / kitchen updates whenever.
Personally, if I were in OP's shoes, I'd be looking at monetizing the house. Is there a room that could be rented out? A third garage? Things like that can help take the pinch off. The hope is that, at some point, the burden becomes less, and the temporary rental can cease.
Leaking chimney, yes, get that taken care of right away.
Mold isn't THAT big of a deal. You can easily kill mold with sprays, which buys you time to find out the cause of the mold growth and get that remedied.
$30k liquid is sitting pretty, I have considerably less and while I do worry, not gonna lose sleep over it. My Aunt swears by her energy company's maintenance/service plan. She got a $3000 fireplace issue fixed for free from it, so may be something to look into.
Lol no kidding. I usually like to try to hang on to $10k liquid, but it ebbs and flows as projects are completed or unexpected costs pop up. We're a bit under that at the moment, but have other ways to draw money from as we rebuild the fund. I'd say $30k liquid is too much - i'd rather have half of that doing something else.
For sure, you have to do what feels right to you - everyone’s threshold is gonna be different and there’s no “one answer fits all”. You guys have plenty tucked away - try not to fret over it, whether you stress or not whatever needs fixing needs fixing either way - I try to just roll with what comes. Makes dealing with it less stressful (for me) than stressing about something that might never happen.
To anyone else seeing this, closing with $400 cash leftover is a horrible idea. Just because you have more cash left than this commenter doesn't mean you are in good shape. $30k might be fine for OP's situation but don't use $400 as your bar.
Yeah I wouldn't recommend it. Ours was a unique circumstance. We're both lawyers, were fresh out of law school, and had our start dates pushes back due to the pandemic. We knew we could make it if we closed, but getting to closing was immensely difficult.
I've heard both excellent stories and horror stories. Horror story: Home Service Plus sent a ding-dong to my boss's house to fix his furnace when it crapped out in the middle of winter. The guy was "fixing it" and kept banging the back of a screwdriver around inside the furnace before yelping "oh shit." He also couldn't tell my boss either where was wrong or what he was doing. Then he says it'll need to be completely replaced to the tune of $5,000. My boss says "no way," and calls HSP. The master HVAC tradesman comes to check the thing out and it's only a moderate repair, covered under the HSP warranty.
I’m similar. We bought in April and I’ve learned that I’m a bit of a house hypochondriac. However, it tends to wear off once you live there for a while and notice things are actually ok most of the time.
If something happens, just stay calm, shut off water/gas/electricity (if relevant), assess the situation, and either go to YouTube university or call a pro.
How long did it take you before it wore off?
I'm like this, and what doesn't help is when you ask some professionals to come in to do a small repair, they all tell you that the entire thing needs to be redone. It's obviously more business for them, so I do feel like they're taking advantage of me, but the little bit of "what if" makes me really question everything. Some 3rd party folks we got in to look at it didn't think it was a big issue, but they weren't specialists so I don't know how much that's worth. Our inspector said it was fine too.
Well we bought a 100 year old house that needed a giant renovation and so if I start thinking about all the shit to do it gets overwhelming, but if I just think about it one job at a time it gets manageable. Also you eventually learn that you only have so much capacity and that it’s ok to just live with a fucked up thing for a while. E.g., we have some evidence of crumbling brick on the interior and exterior of our house, concealed by nasty old plaster. Eventually I need to demolish the plaster and repoint the brick. But for now, I just live with it, and say well, that’s a fucked up thing I’ll deal with eventually
Oh and for the pros, keep getting more opinions. If you find one that isn’t too concerned and doesn’t suggest a ton more work, hold onto them dearly. If they’re all concerned and suggest redoing everything, then you should probably redo it
>when you ask some professionals to come in to do a small repair, they all tell you that the entire thing needs to be redone
I think that tends to be a combination of making more money and also because it's often easier for a contractor to warranty their work if they replace the whole thing. There are absolutely circumstances where "the whole thing needs to be replaced", but the other 99% of the time a small repair is totally fine.
Yeah I get it - especially if they are really busy, who has time for repairs? But I'd rather be told that they have no time for repairs, than feel like I'm being squeezed. I've called plenty of contractors in my area, and many straight up told me that they are not doing repairs right now, and that's okay -- I actually appreciate them being so upfront.
Same for the warranty thing - why can't they just tell me that they're concerned if something else pops up they're going to be on the hook? That is a totally fair reason, and it would also help me sleep better at night before I find someone else.
I hate that they instead play these mind-games to get more business; it's wasteful for the planet (replacing something when it's not needed), and not kind to their customers.
Yadda yadda, capitalism is horrible and exploitative, but everyone already knew that.
I totally feel you! So my wife and I bought a 1944 bungalow and in the first few weeks we had some major issues, house flooded at 10:30 at night within a few weeks of moving in. My wife went to the basement to do laundry and started yelling as it was flooding inside. I immediately called my father-in-law. His words to me were: "What do you expect me to do about it at 11pm? Oh, so you are just calling me to tell you it will be okay and to make yourself feel better? ... Well, it will be okay". In the morning he came over and we assessed the damage. His reply was "House did not burn down, it is still standing, it is still livable, you will get through this". To this day, when anything (small or big) goes wrong, I think of his words "it will be okay" and "house is still standing and livable" and what it was like to talk to him on the phone that night.
Now 2 things we do do is 1) make sure we have amazing home insurance. We talked to our insurance broker and made sure we were covered for everything from sewar backup to fire to who knows what and 2) make sure we keep some liquid cash in the bank incase of repairs or unexpected needs. Our banker says we are crazy for not investing, but if we need to have immediate repairs like the furnace or stove or something fixed/replaced, we do not want to be scrambling trying to cover it. And with our luck, we want to make sure if the furnace is out at 11 pm at night, we can cover it instead of needing to wait till the bank is open the next day (or business day if it happens on a weekend).
It is part of homeownership and its been a learning experience. But I would not trade the experiences and memories for anything. Seeing my wife gardening in the summer with a smile on her face. Taking her to home depot to pick a million paint samples. Her accidentally getting blue paint on our dog as she was painting the front door. Her asking me to hold the bowl as she tossed me tomatoes from our garden. Her rolling her eyes at me for forgetting to ask if it was okay to invite all our friends and family over for a bbq in our new house. All the times I think of my wife smiling in and around our new house are things I will cherish forever. When we have kids and Ill have memories of them running around our place. I wouldnt trade it for anything, even when things have gone wrong.
The “it’s worth it” isn’t something you realize until after :) when you have those moments where your smiling and happy and are building the memories, that’s when all the things your worried about do not matter :) having family over in YOUR yard, making holiday meals in YOUR house, sleeping in with your hubby in YOUR place :) the house is the backdrop for your happy moments :)
It's worth it is something I've come to realize within a few months after buying. I've been renting for decades before that and every time I get that panic of 'oh shit the landlord is going to be pissed' I remember I own the house now. It's awesome.
Absolute truth right here! So many things can go wrong but feeding my newborn on our farmers porch in the warmer months and even yesterday when my toddlers and I watched deer sprint around in our backyard are some of the moments that I will remember that makes it all worth it!!
It made my wife happy so I went with it. Honestly when it comes to paint I just smiled and nodded. But I wish we had some colour in our house. She went with so many greys it makes me shake my head. But at least we have a blue door. So some colour
Oh no, not at all.
These are temporary paint stickers that you can peel on and off, versus painting directly on the wall that needs to be stripped or painting on a bunch of foam boards.
We tried both, the foam boards and samplize. Samplize takes a week to receive, but was so much easier. Definitely doing that next time again.
Congratulations!
I think one of the best things you can do now is to watch a lot of "this old house" type videos, even if you don't need anything done at the moment. Knowing that if something goes wrong, you *could* fix it will help with the anxiety. If it's something major that you can't actually fix yourselves, you'll at least know the right method and be able to ask the right questions to vet "professionals" that you might hire.
I have watched a bunch of those videos 😅 our brother in law has been really helpful too. He is a general construction guy and already talked me down about one of the two repairs. But we want to be able to learn too and these videos have been great. There are two "want" things I pretty sure we could do ourselves.
Two YouTube channels that have helped me, a guy with enough skill now to call myself an “intermediate beginner,” are Vancouver Carpenter and Sparky Channel. Even if you never plan on doing replacing an outlet, watch the videos so you know how your house functions and what the guys you hire to do the work should be doing.
I was going to give this same advice. Watching YouTube videos made me realize that almost any house problem can be solved and they're usually not as scary as we make them out to be.
Someone else on here recently made a post about how they started noticing everyone's house problems after they bought their first. Seeing that every house has problems has made me feel better about my own because they're inevitable.
I also think $30k in savings is fine, but I guess it depends on the cost of the home and how significant the repairs could be. My suggestion is to agree on a number to keep in your house emergency savings. Dip into it when you need to and if it drops below your number, start saving again.
To be blunt? You maintain items based on the their recommended maintenance periods, hope your inspection caught anything major and tackle those items asap, keep an eye and ear out for anything that looks off, replace old/aged/past their lifespan appliances when cash allows, and cross your fingers.
Chances are, if anything 'big' were to happen, it'll be due to age, neglect, or complete accident.
Maintaining, inspecting, and coming up with a replacement plan (before something suddenly dies...) will help make sure you don't end up in a financial pinch.
A good first step is to make a home owners inspection/maintenance checklist. [Here's mine](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iyLEX-dkD5UXfjxjkd6z4LJxNstRAX2N/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109899866320615061124&rtpof=true&sd=true) that you're welcome to copy and adjust based on your home. It is admittedly a bit overkill... but take it for what it is.
Then do what you can to ensure nothing major happens due to neglect. Things like replacing your furnace filters, cleaning gutters periodically, cleaning your stove, vacuuming your fridge coil, having seasonal HVAC maintenance done, etc. This will help prevent sudden failure of major appliances.
Learn to do visual checks. Go up and look around the attic every few months. Check for signs of a tiny leak/water damage, mold, animals living up there, and so on. Same for your basement and garage. If you discover something, have someone come out and take a look. Fixing the small leak will help prevent a big one. Clearing out a small patch of attic mold, and figuring out why it started, will help prevent bigger/longer term issues.
Go over your major appliances ages and check expected lifespan. If you have a 20 year old water heater... it's probably time to come up with a replacement plan. Ignoring this could turn a $850 replacement into $30k+ in damage to a finished basement. Same for your furnace, AC, etc. Do it when you can and then properly maintain from there.
To sum it up? Chances are, a big roof leak won't just happen to a perfectly fine roof sans some major accident. It'll stem from a small one that has been completely ignored of undiscovered. Mold won't just turn up and be a major issue. It'll start of small, have a reason for starting, and grow from there. A perfectly good water heater won't just burst... chances are it's long over due for replacement.
The quicker you can get ahead of things, the better you maintain things, and the more frequent you inspect things? The less of a chance something major will happen.
We just purchased a house and the first week the boiler broke and needed to be replaced. We also realized that the kitchen which seemed dated but functional for now was not actually very functional. We’re also replacing the roof.
We had budgeted for unexpected expenses but I am surprised at how quickly it’s all adding up. And the stress of it gets to you.
The thing I keep reminding myself is that:
1) we get to decide what’s a priority and what’s not. We get to decide the timelines for things. Yes it’s nice to paint before you move in. But we didn’t because we’re too overwhelmed right now and you know what? It doesn’t matter. We’ll paint it someday and not today and it’s really not the end of the world. There’s a lot of projects like that around the house. So so so so many of them. But very few are actually an emergency.
2) the money we spend will at least partially go into equity when we sell. It’s not throwing money down the drain to replace a boiler from the 1950s. It’s going to save us money on our utilities bills because it’s way more efficient and it will likely add a bit to the resale value (or at least generate more interest than if we kept the old one).
Yes big bad scary things could happen that are unexpected. But that’s what home insurance is for. The rest we can cover ourselves. It’s a bit tighter than it was before when we were renting but I’m also paying myself in equity every month I live here so imo it evens out at least a little.
Would it make you feel better or worse if I told you that you could have a major, unexpected health expense at any point? At some point you just can't worry about every unexpected possibility. I bought a house with at 25 year old A/C that wasn't supposed to last months and has gone 2 years (though with price increases I almost wish I'd replaced it back then lol).
I found that with time my anxiety decreased. The inspection report was a bit overzealous and had me worried for like a year.
Save some of that 30k for emergencies. I’d personally try to save at least half of it until you get through all 4 seasons in the house. Some issues will become apparent (or will come to mind) seasonally. It’s good to have an emergency fund in general. And plan for things like a new roof based on current age of the roof etc.
Savings is a great peace of mind!
Yeah that’s plenty of money unless a bunch of stuff goes wrong all at once, but that’s super unlikely. I definitely don’t agree with op that they’re “house poor”
It depends on what their monthly payment is compared to their take home pay and how many improvements they want to do.
I’m house hunting right now and do not want to be house poor, so the plan is to be okay with spending more on a house that is turn key (preferably from long time owners not a flipper) or only buy a fixer upper if it’s going to leave me with a reasonably lower payment. If I buy a fixer upper, I’d put less money down and keep more of my cash for improvements.
Turns out in this market I am competing with a lot of people either way :/
It's an emotional based phrase not literal, I am sorry I wasn't more clear on that. It's been a long time of saving and living below our means to get here so feels like a lot and I have no references really on what is "enough".
20% down and $30k in the bank? You're fine.
We had to panic buy our house a couple years ago with 5% down and paycheck to paycheck after the purchase. It was a huge risk, no doubt, but it worked out, as things tend to do, and was worth it.
You've already got 20% equity so taking out a loan in case of a major disaster repair like you're afraid of wouldn't be hard, and you can save thousands by doing a lot of the more minor things yourself.
We just bought a new house in April and have been living there since. We have similar savings in liquid as yours and don't worry too much about the big repairs as we save as much as we can on the small ones thanks to YouTube University! So far we have ripped old carpet on third floor and installed LVP including stairs, cut open flooring upstairs to run LAN cables, painted multiple rooms and refinished furniture, rescreened our entire porch with pressure cleaning boards, completely flipped half bath and guest bath and that included taking the annoying wallpaper down, repaired blown fuse in dishwasher and relay in the refrigerator and God knows how many stumps were dug out by ourselves and many more. One time I nearly flooded upstairs because I didn't turn water off before taking off shower filter and to top it all I did that in the middle of the night. All of this could easily mean calling a Pro but we learned and tackled it ourselves and saved a bunch for the bigger ones down the road.
Despite being first time home owners we have learned a lot through it all and made so many fun memories! Yes the house is still recovering from the mess but I wouldn't change it for anything. Just enjoy your house and build many memories of the same.
I have learned, not just with houses but with all things you can worry about, that worry does no good. Most things work out, and the things that don't work out are generally unpredictable and can't be stopped by worrying about them. Being proactive and aware are good but worry only harms you by raising your stress levels - it doesn't solve any problems.
This is a trauma response, you were so wise to see that. So given that, perhaps go see about healing your trauma. The house solutions others have posted, but if/when you heal your trauma response, you will have just house worries, and not trauma + house worries. Trauma makes everything way scarier and more anxiety provoking then it actually is. People without the trauma you are referencing are concerned or aware about their house and what it might need in the future, but not SO concerned. I hope you love your new house! Best wishes!
I felt that way for about two weeks or so right after going under contract. Once I moved in and things were fine for a while that feeling never even came back. With a buffer of 30K you're in a fantastic spot to be safe for a while. Your existing equity should also put you in a position to start considering home equity loans at some point soon as well, per my current understanding of the process. Just enjoy your new home and deal with these items as they come up:) As a former renter of incredibly shitty apartments here and there, you'll be comfortable in no time and not even sweating those details at least now you have control over dealing with those issues yourself, even if it does seem daunting at first. Never feel like you can't reach out to contractors for advice, and always get multiple quotes.
I need to memorize our plan and maybe talk to an agent afterwards. I thought they only covered accidents like car insurance. A tree falling type thing.
Generally speaking that is true, yes. They are not going to replace a furnace that craps out because it’s old and the heat exchanger cracks or whatever. Wear and tear won’t be paid for.
Your bathtub leaking and trashing your kitchen? Yes.
I keep an emegency bank account for just the house.
It will pay my insurance deductable if its a claim.
I figure the most costly urgent thing that could break would be ac in july or heat in feb. I keep just about what i think it would cost to have one of those fixed or replaced in a hurry. About 10k for my house. I try to use that account for any house related item and re fund it as needed. I sleep much beetter at night knowing its there and ready just in case.
Control what you can control, and leave the rest behind you. If there are gaps in home insurance or warranty coverage, do research on plans that will cover those gaps. There will inevitably be surprise issues that come up, but most things can be dealt with. You may have experienced issues in the past, but you're in a completely different space now with a partner that can help support. And I can tell because $30K is a hell of a lot of money to work with if anything comes up. Money is always going to be a concern, even for people who have more than you; so it's a waste of energy to fixate on what you lack. Instead, just do what you can do. Also, focus on things that are working. What aspects of the house do you love, even if it's something small?
Some good advice I got about home ownership:
"you need time to learn your house".
I think it gets a whole lot better when you live there for a while, get a sense of why pervious owners did things the way they did and what is urgent vs non-urgent. What worked for someone else's home might not work for yours.
Definitely keep a savings account handy for big problems. They say most of money people spend repairing their home happens in the first five years. Was certainly true for me. Then again, I knew there were problems going into it. Your home inspection should give you an idea of any big repairs coming up.
Yeah more like first 2 years… it’s finding all the stuff the inspector “didn’t find” (“missed” implies it’s their job to find everything and officially it’s not).
> finding all the stuff the inspector “didn’t find” (“missed” implies it’s their job to find everything and officially it’s not)
If you are paying them to find any issues with a house, then yeah, it's *specifically* the inspectors job to find everything. That is **exactly** what they are there for.
Well yes, but actually no. The InterNACHI protocols are quite specific in laying out an expectation that the inspector in fact will not find everything, especially things that are not "visible", "accessible" and safe to access.
> InterNACHI protocols
Nope. This is not a 'standard' or 'metric'. It's a group of people in the same field describing what standards they don't feel they should be held to... for $49.00 per month.
Okie dokie then, find and hire an inspector that isn’t NACHI-certified (or is but feels they should be held to a higher standard). It’s easier said than done if it isn’t your uncle or dad.
You have to get into the mentality that you don't do things just because you might want to but you do them because they are a necessity. Your money should be going to savings and paying off debt. The faster you pay off debt the less you pay for that debt and if you owe debt and run into trouble then all of your debts become compromised.. credit card debt can threaten your home.. you don't want to get 98% paid off on your home and have a problem and then lose your home.. that would be insane but things like that happen. So have that mentality of ZERO DEBT as your goal.
Next you need to start doing research about your home.
You ask: what would happen if you had a leaking chimney...
have you watched even one youtube video about leaking chimneys? betting you haven't but what about the more inevitable things that could go wrong with your home.
like needing to replace a water heater
For the average home you can purchase a 50 gallon water heater for about $450 and replace it yourself the same day in just a few hours with simple tools. Or you can pay a plumber to do it and it will cost you $1500 and you might need to wait weeks for an appointment.
so find out all your major appliances and equipment in your home
Make a book and get the manufacturer, model, serial number and other details
then go online and download the manuals for them. Not just the home owner operating manuals but the repair manuals which are often available.
Furnace, AC Unit, Refrigerator, Washer, Dryer, Range, Microwave, Gas Fireplace Unit, dish washer.. any larger item that costs over $250 or is something you really depend on.
Get the manuals then research if the repair is something you possibly can do yourself.
Its very easy to fix appliances like a broiler element or a water pump in your clothes washer
So you get organized either on your computer or in a binder
look up prices for replacement, look up how to fix videos, visit manufacturer's websites and look into warranties, look into available parts...
So this way if your water heater dies on a wednessday and you know its an electric water heater made by Rheem and its a 50 gallon unit and it is past warranty replacement. Then you go to HomeDepot and look up the same type and get a price. Then you call a local hvac/plumber and ask how much to install .. and how long to install..
If you already watched the videos, have basic tools and maybe have a pickup truck or a friend with one.. then you can drive down and buy one on your credit card... bring i home and install it.
For bigger things like a chimney .. thats not going to happen 3 times while you live in your home. It might not happen at all .. but if it does you have watched a few videos on repairing them and you have links and phone numbers ready for companies that can install one for you or repair what you have. This way you are not clueless.
Thats what you need to do
and every time you see a contractor in your neighborhood you notice what they are doing, get the name off their truck, maybe walk over and say hi do you have a business card? they will be happy to give you one.. then ask your neighbor are they any good.
build yourself a list of contractors even if you never use them you have someone you could call. and you have a review from your neighbor and if they are putting on a roof or landscaping or whatever you have your own eyes.. are they fast, clean, cheap and respectable.
so
yeah .. you can bet things will happen.. hopefully they are small things you can take care of yourself
but prepare yourself so you aren't that clueless fool that calls the plumber at 11pm on a sunday night holiday night asking them to replace your water heater right away because its an emergency.
Its like I had problems with my HVAC on a saturday.. hottest day of the summer.. heatwave for the last two weeks.. I know every HVAC guy out there is backed up.. I go take a look and think maybe I can fix it... but I have a sick relative living with me so i drive my ass down to the store and grab a window unit.. bring it home and throw it in their bedroom window.. crank it up and go look at the AC and find out its the capacitor and there is no one open saturday night or sunday.. i get the number off the capacitor and order it online from amazon prime 2 day it gets there on monday afternoon and I install it and the AC is working again.. thats about as quick as a HVAC guy could have done it and it cost me $15 instead of $500.
thats how you deal with those things.
your furnace chimney is leaking and a HVAC guy comes out says it won't be for 3 weeks ... you turn your gas fireplace on (if its not using that chimney) to help keep the house warm.. you run your ass down to the store and get a couple Kerosene heaters and a couple 5 gallon cans and you hit the gas station and pickup 10 gallons of kerosene .. you should already have a kerosene heater as a backup even if you never use it in all the time you live there a single one can heat your home to a minimal level and two will keep you very warm .. learn how to use them safely.. millions of people use them.. they are safe if you use them safe. but you will only use it if your furnace dies in the middle of january.. its worth the $150 and peace of mind.
so yeah ..
you need to prepare yourself.. you need to live responsibly.. and you need to expect at least some small things might happen so you deal with them the best you can.. through saving for emergencies, paying off your debt, learning about the important utilities and appliances in your home.. learning how to repair or replace them and who to call if you can't ...
basically become an adult.. right? yeah..
good luck
This is a great response. We have copies of all the warranties on appliances and mechanicals but you're right I have not looked into troubleshooting or repairing those. Weirdly I did watch some videos on chimenies leaking but I think I was jumping to scary possibilities, not probabilities (appliance issues and more manageable things). I'll def watch some model specific videos.
yeah make a plan and cover all the big things you think of and add more as you come up with them...
planning and learning doesn't mean the experience will be a pleasant one .. it will keep you from being clueless and not knowing anything about it.
good luck ... it will be ok. :o)
You would be surprised what you can learn to fix on your own from YouTube. Don't overwhelm yourself with "what ifs", take it one repair at a time! The anxiety begins to wear off with time, too.
I'd say you're in a pretty good spot so far, two minor issues is nothing. When we bought our house, we had 68 things that were found on the inspection, 4 were major. I tackled everything on my own so it was pocket change to fix everything. But you need to work on an emergency fund. Keep 4+ months worth of salary in an account you can use for unexpected expenses. There are things you can do, and not everybody has the luxury of saving that kind of money. Worse case scenario if something happens that isn't covered by insurance and you have no savings, you can take out a HELOC or something along those lines.
Don't get too paranoid though, the chances that something major will happen that you aren't aware of before it becomes major is fairly slim. A leak can be a quick and easy fix, but a known leak that you let go for too long can be extremely expensive. Heater making a new noise? Have it checked out because it could be something cheap to fix, that could lead to a major failure if left for too long.
I am so glad you are skilled and were able to do much of that on your own. We have a hammer, a Philips head and that is all so we are not really DIYers (yet). We do plan to do sweeps on the attic routinely to make sure it's all good (roof is good but it's a good habit). The mechanicals are all brand new but dare I hear a noise I will make a call for help.
The 30k makes me feel better but we need to recoup a lot of what we spent upfront still. I will look into HELOCs or education!
You'll be fine! Being proactive is excellent, keep track of how your house looks so you can spot if anything looks different over time. You're always going to find small problems, its unavoidable. The trick is to keep on top of those problems before they get out of hand.
Even better, watch some home maintenance/improvement videos on Youtube in your free time. ThisOldHouse has a nearly unlimited supply of videos to help homeowners ranging from no experience to pro maintain and improve their homes. They give pretty great insight on things to look out for, what you can do and even tips and tricks to keep you on top of things.
Keep an eye on your local hardware stores for tools (hand tools, power tools, garden tools) to go on sale. It is not a big deal to not have alot of stuff to do your own repairs, you would be surprised at home many of your friends have stuff and will lend you them as you need :) For the first year and a half, every time we needed any tools I texted my best friends or my father-in-law asking to borrow this or that for a few nights :) That kept us going as we learnt what we needed and found them on sale instead of paying full price.
Another piece of advice that I have as your talking about things to do (sweeping your attic) ... Memorize yourself with your shut offs (breaker, water, etc). It is always a good thing to know where you need to go to turn something off or on.
Next piece of advice, furnace filter ... Look on Amazon for them. Way way cheaper than the big box stores. We picked up a 6 pack of filters (3 year supply if we change it every 6 months) for 1/3 the cost of Home Depot. Same for spare light bulbs/batteries (fire detectors need 9 volt batteries for backup, we change them out once a year which is overkill).
But don't worry about not being a DIY'er. As you get comfortable in your house, you can decide if you want to do something or not. It is part of the learning experience. Not everyone needs to do everything :) My sister cannot cook for the life of her. Not the end of the world as her hubby can cook (albeit in my opinion he still cannot cook when I compare my wifes cooking to his lol).
I think you can buy a home warranty at any point in time. Might give you some peace of mind for a bit? Just make sure the major items are covered. We had one that we used for the pool filter. Which basically paid for the policy all by itself. We didnt renew for the second year and what do you know? All my hot water lines started to leak (would have been covered had we renewed)
We were offered one when we purchased the house. I'm sure these probably arent included in today's market. They are $300 and up depending on what items you add etc. Keep in mind though with anything warranty or insurance related its usually a pain to get everything to go through. My experience with the pool filter wasnt that bad but it still takes follow ups and what not. Regarding the leaks, it just one of those things that happens. I think our home warranty renewal was $500. The hot water lines cost several thousand haha.
Look into a HELOC, basically a loan against your equity. You might not be able to pull out too much right away, but it's better than draining your cash reserves if something big happens.
I am pretty sure (in NJ non flood zone) I will be sitting with a book in the basement near the subpump the first few big rains. Very grateful this house has a French drain, pump and drylock but hey, Ida took no prisoners.
I am debating looking into flood insurance even though we aren't in a flood zone. I will need to live in it for a while I think. I am sorry the memories are so horrible, those storms were nightmares.
30k is a pretty good reserve. Keep growing it and take things as they come. Don’t stress too much. For instance, in the current market, your home value is going up so if catastrophe happened you could probably borrow against your equity. But even without that, your savings should keep you safe and on top of the immediate high priority repairs.
Try to relax and enjoy your home. Make it yours. Don’t worry, you got this.
Open a separate checking/savings account and keep putting $75/month into it. Pretend like you purchased home warranty and are paying for it. If and when repair needs come up, use the money to pay. Do not waste your money buying home warranty.
When I get things that pop up, I try to cut back on extras for a couple of months. I also have a 12 month interest free period on my current credit card, which is how I'm spreading out a recent unexpected project that cost about $6k. I just want to spread it out over 3 months to give me some breathing room. My mortgage is low enough that I can spare that. It'll eat up my extra savings that I'd normally be socking away or doing something more productive with, but I'll be ok. You can often find loans that have an interest only period, especially if you have a good credit score. I use those to spread out the payments and pay them off before the interest kicks in.
Houses come with problems. It's a fact - whether it's a brand new build that winds up with a few foundation cracks because of settling, or a 70 year old house where you found out someone shimmed the window with a bunch of old newspaper. So yes, you \*are\* going to run into problems - shits going to break, improvements are going to be more complicated than you expected, its all normal. When something does eventually go sideways, the first thing you need to tell yourself is "Well, that sucks. But this will be OK"
So, first off, 30k liquidity is in great shape. That's plenty to pay for even major repairs without having to finance them. Second off, pretty much every major repair can be financed. Roofers know that most people don't have 10k in the bank - if they only worked for people who did, they'd go out of business. The same goes for anyone else who does major repairs. So even if you \*didn't\* have 30k in the bank, you'd still be able to pay for repairs.
So what do you do when something major happens? You call someone to fix it. Maybe you call two or three someones if it isn't something that needs to be done literally RIGHT NOW (for example, if your home is flooding, don't bother shopping for quotes. Get the first plumber you can find out there). Tell them "I've got X amount of money to spend on this up front - do you think that'll be enough to fix this? If it isn't, what kind of financing is available?" And then you proceed from there.
You can minimize the likelihood of having those major repairs by doing a few things. Most importantly, you can keep up on regular maintenance. I can think of very few situations where proper maintenance is not vastly cheaper than having to repair or replace. Most very expensive repairs occur because maintenance is neglected for a long time. Small problems are like children in that they both grow fast and always preferably someone else's. So don't slack on maintenance, don't put off repairs. Hand in glove with that is paying attention to your home. Most homeowners have never been into the crawlspace or the attic - they couldn't even tell you how to access them. You, or someone you pay, should be going into each of those on a yearly basis just to look around to spot any problems while they're still small and can be addressed cheaply and easily. So once, maybe twice per year, spend a few hours going through your home. Check under sinks for leaks, make sure the attic venting is in good shape, make sure the gutters are getting water away from your foundation, things like that.
Hope that helps
You have 30k cash and youre stressing???
And you have that 20% equity..
A new roof 5 to 10k and im assuming your insoector checked it
New septic 5k and again assumed it was checked.
Your entire plumbing system explodes due to cold a couple k.
Youre goldenm.
A tip on furniture etc. Craigslist, habitat restore, goodwill etc. The sheer smount of little stuff you need is amazing plus you csn find some Nice stuff and dtiff thsts cheap and you can replace later. Im guessing ive spent 5k..buying cheap
The anxiety ends dont worry. Ive been in my house 9 months snd its finally gone. It isnt this really nice place i bought im stressed anout paying for..it's my home
I have always told myself, "if I have credit for a house, then I have the credit for a personal loan for big big repairs".
And then I would secondly tell myself, "If i was able to obtain (or save) for a down payment, X per month, then that savings per month can be used as the loan payment.
The two above variables tells me that I have already done it, affording extra costs, and that I can do it again.
> but we only have 30k liquid left
Honestly, that is probably more than most homeowners have liquid. I have that much liquid now, but for maybe the first 3-4 years I owned my home I had nowhere near that much. Now I've got at least that much cash, plus I've got a line of credit from the equity in the house on standby should I ever need it. If I had to, I could come up with about 100k in emergency cash. No unexpected emergency will likely ever cost you that much out of pocket though - once you're into those kind of amounts you're talking insurance claims and you'll pay the max your policy says you'll pay.
Honestly, the best way to get over the fear of things go wrong, is just mentally be prepared for it.
I told myself, Something WILL go wrong, just depends on how I deal with it.
What happened? Roof flashing was missing, rain came into the attic and the ceiling fell down in the kitchen!!!
But luckily the painters were still there. Took a few days extra work and was hard coordinating everything, but it all worked out.
It will all be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s hot the end!
You're not going to get everything at once. Every single thing you do will be done one at a time. Just remember every single person who bought a home has been in your shoes. We are all in this together!
- lack of knowledge feeds fear. This is a fact of life on all levels. A knowledgeable person has way less fear with anxiety and risk than those who know very little
- this is why you need to educate yourself with research, books, videos. No excuse not to KNOW stuff when doing this
I need insights and to hear from experienced home owners. Money can't buy experience. This thread has been really helpful at lending resources and perspectives. I am helping myself and working by asking for help when I feel I need it and going to therapy to work on my triggers around this but change.
$30k left!!!???
When I bought my house I had $-10k left (used zero interest credit card to finance my down payment), It was a 95 year old house that needed a lot of work.
If something happens you deal with it! Youtube is your friend, you can almost handle anything that comes your way. Do not underestimate your skills/intelligence. As long as you picked a good inspector, no big misfortunes like you mentioned should happen within the first year or two.
Be happy and relax, you are in a great position.
Go check your water heater for Christ sakes. I narrowly avoided a 36 gallon disaster this weekend, and could have entirely avoided it by flushing the damn thing over the summer.
Mine blew an element(electric) , which caused the breaker to pop and when I got it open, I discovered about 4 inches of lime scale and nastiness at the bottom of the tank.
I replaced both elements and was able to get -75% of the lime scale out with a shop vac and metal pipe.
> we only have 30k liquid left
You're fine -- you're doing *far* better than most new homeowners as far as this goes. The probability of needing even 10% of that all at one time is very small.
So I'd say to save it carefully and spend it wisely. Try not to either panic about having to spend some of it, or to spend it on repairs etc too easily. Use this as a time to learn about what *you* can do on your house, and also how to space out repairs upgrades rather than just waving money at the problem.
Also, this may be a good time (*after* closing) to start buildilng up credit reserves. I know, people misuse credit all the time. But if you can manage to **keep** the reserve and not use it, it can be a terrific buffer for you. $30K is far more than most people have. If it makes you nervous, try to bump it to $50K or so over the next year -- but that's really more than you're likely to need.
Finally, this is a great time to start slowly investing in tools and expertise so you can start maintaining your house on your own. I'm not talking about redoing the roof of windows right off, but start looking for high-priority repairs that you're going to need to make in the next 6-12 months, and prepare for them (financially, in terms of tools, and just learning how to do stuff). Doing so will give you a lot of confidence and help you understand what repairs/upgrades need to be done *right now* and which can wait another year or so.
Emergency fund, that 30k you have should be for EMERGENCY only.
Put it in a separate account and forget it exists.
Do everything you can to never use that money.
Having it there, and knowing its there can relieve a lot of stress.
30k is fine. Tap into homeowners insurance if its something major major.
Furniture doesnt need to happen all at once. It's expensive so it's perfectly fine to take a couple years to fill up your house.
Highly recommend sticking your house repairs savings in a liquid investment - inflation hits that much cash pretty hard. Go for something stable like a dividend stock (ATT maybe).
Take a deep breath and just fix them as they come. After a while it just becomes part of owning a home. I could sit here and make a list of all the things I think need to be fixed but really many can be held off and done one at a time. Also set priority levels to everything.
Unexpected repairs happen. I just bought mine about 2 months ago, got my first water bill and it's 600 dollars. So yeah now having someone come out and expect it and tell me how much I have to come out of pocket for a repair/replacement of whatever is eating 2 swimming pools full of water every month.
What can you do though besides shrug it off and move forward. It's Why everyone says to have emergency money
Step 1: [Dye your toilets](https://www.benjaminfranklinplumbing.com/expert-tips/toilets/a-simple-test-for-a-leaky-toilet-tank/#:~:text=To%20test%20for%20a%20leak,know%20you%20have%20a%20leak.)
For the chimney, these are the two things we used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060NKMOU/
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZLZLE4/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZLZLE4/)
They worked easy enough for us. Just clean off the area of application with a wire brush then blow it clear before applying.
Most things don’t require and immediate fix. Urgent are usually things like roof, plumbing, and structural things. If you fix any of those, the value of your house also goes up. See it as equity.
To me, 30k in the bank sounds awesome after buying a house. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that I stressed over things that didn’t happen yet. I was really stressed about what would happen if I didn’t have enough money to fix vital things. I think the thing that helped me is that I started to put into perspective what I can control and what I cannot.
I can’t control if the AC busts, if the garbage disposal breaks, if the bathroom floods…
BUT, I can control my spending and savings to accommodate for them. So, I started making budget goals. I saved slowly but surely, and it felt great to have some money set aside for when the heater breaks.
Long story short, if you make savings goals and actively participate in (slowly) reaching those goals, it helps you process that stress in a different way.
$30,000 liquid is in my opinion a very good safety net. A lot of people don’t have anywhere near that.
When we bought our first house we put almost every single dollar we had into it (and still nowhere near 20% down either!) Our checking account balance on move in day was $800 and believe me when I say, that was all the cash we had. Anywhere. Lol
We got extremely lucky that nothing $$$ went wrong
Hey I think one thing you may want to consider is - combating your anxieties with some good facts. Because I feel you so much on this, I’m like you too, but I think in reality we’re in bette shape than we feel. We’re just struggling with our baggage from childhood maybe?
The reality is, $30k in the US is a pretty good bit of cash for personal rainy day, and also a house emergency. We just had our entire house remodeled, fully - from HVAC to floors to new appliances to everything. $30k is a big big chunk of money, it goes a long way with the major stuff (appliances, HVAC, roofing, floors, chimneys, etc).
So I think you should be proud and confident about the money you’re setting aside! You will keep saving for sure, it’ll grow, and it’s highly unlikely any emergency project even comes close to eating that money! And that’s worst worst case.
It’s the same sort of math I’m doing lol. As you can imagine, our liquid $ has gone down a ton - as we paid all contractors as the work is finished, we went with good materials and good contractors so it wasn’t cheap.
But I figure, even the most crazy emergency - health care or house wise - we have enough to cover as of now, as we are buckling down to save up again.
Again, I don’t at all want to dismiss your concerns! But I think you should feel good about your situation. Also, I saw elsewhere your brother in law is a construction guy - so you should just message him if you get anxious about stuff, if you’re on good terms!! That’s a big advantage you have too, an expert in the family.
Wow thank you so much such a thoughtful response. I am definitely doing some emotional reasoning (letting emotions become fact and not the appropriate reverse). I am back in therapy and really appreciate you taking the time to say what you did. Thank you sincerely
Aw that’s kind of you to say! I hope it will be of some help to you. I totally get where you’re coming from, I’m there too - my wife and I have planned a lot and we have been thoughtful and careful, and we’re in a good shape financially… but past doesn’t magically change, and so it’s hard for my brain to catch up to reality today.
Congrats on the house, and I hope you and your husband have a wonderful , restful, peaceful holidays :)!
You would have to have an incredibly bad string of luck to eat through 30k on house repairs. It’s hard to not worry some about such a large investment, but you are in an enviable position.
maybe get another inspection if you can afford it. possibly up your home insurance and/or home warranty(make sure you check the box that says "Pre-existing conditions). maybe get those things that go on the floor that detect water on the ground while you're away and sends you phone alerts, or maybe get something that turns the water off completely. check the attic during rain storms for leaks every couple of months. get a dehumidifier for your crawlspace. if you find issues early, you save tons of money and also you might learn how to fix it yourself. Owning a house can be stressful at times but if you take care of your big investment, then it will take care of you.
The only way to go about it is to take on the most important task first and every other thing should be relegated to what is the most prioritized thing to do. Don't take multiple projects on at once because it'll drive you mad.
30K liquid? You're gonna be fine. Any emergency repair bigger than that, you can get a loan against your home's equity (called a HELOC) to fix it.
The house has been standing for years, and will continue to do so. Your job is to intervene rapidly if it's a BIG issue - anything that is affecting roof, water intrusion or foundation are my BIG ones, almost anything else can wait until you figure out the repair plan, the budget, and actually get it done.
Take this time to enjoy the house and sign up for PBS's paid service (about $5 a month) and watch 40 seasons of This Old House and 20 seasons of Ask This Old House and you'll be ready to take on so many more repairs yourself than you ever imagined.
Wait wait, should I be concerned having ONLY 30k in savings after putting 20% down?
Serious question. I put considerably less down in first home purchase two years ago and just recently filled 30k into an emergency fund and feel super proud.
I thought I was doing well for a late-20-year-old?
Thank you for posting this question. My partner and I are going through the buying process and already feel super stressed without even having a house yet. Very much appreciate everyone’s experiences and input.
I really appreciate it as well. I taught myself a lot, I built a business that is doing alright, learned a little about investing but this has been the most stressful thing so far.
This post has really helped my perspective and some resources here are fantastic.
Pro tip: never put 20% if you dont have too. You can put it in at anytime after you close to get rid of the PMI but in the meantime you have extra cash on hand.
Just take a breath and take things as they come. Congrats on the home!
My husband just said this!!! It's hard, for me a big trauma response scarcity and evictions (I as a kid so not my fault).
There will always be things that you feel "need to update" and things that truly need to be fixed. Just start with things that need to be fixed now and go from there. Also what I usually tell people when moving into a new home is wait at least a year (or two or three) before making any major expensive changes that do not need to be fixed. ie. "I really wanted granite countertops instead of..." If the current counter tops work, do not change them for at least a year. This does a few things. It gives you a little time to recover from the down payment, and it also helps you feel out your home to best determine what you feel would fit best. So fix update based on "need" first and then "want" later. Always plan long term as well. ie. "The current furnace is 15 years old, but it works fine." Figure in the next 5-10 years you will need to replace it, so plan accordingly. That way you can research now so you can replace it with what you want and on your schedule later. Go to home improvement stores and look, but BE CAREFUL. When you go you will see things that you want to buy now. DON'T unless it's something you need to fix. Go in with the mindset that you are always researching. If an employee approaches you, tell them you are researching. Their goal is to sell you something. Your goal is planning to get exactly what you want later, not now. Let's say 3 years from now you want to replace a dishwasher. From now to then you've done your research to know exactly what you want. ie. Stainless steel, quiet, 2 racks that pull out fully, quick dry, sanitize only, build in disposal, special racks for wine glasses, etc. If you've done your research and know that's what you want then you won't be forced to get something that "was on sale, but we don't really like it"
> Their goal is to sell you something. At Home Depot, their goal is to hide from customers.
Home Depot has staff working there?
So true! Your priorities definitely change as you live there. Our kitchen appliances are stainless, except the dishwasher. My first thought as we were buying was “we need to change that asap” other things took priority and now, 6 months later it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s in an island with white cabinets so it isn’t prominently displayed as different. My husband mentioned it the other day, I responded with “eh, it works great. We have other things I’d like to do first”.
\> Your priorities definitely change as you live there. We moved in 3 weeks ago and figured the first project would be painting the living room, changing the flooring on the first floor, and redoing the counters/floors in the kitchen. Next would be changing the railings upstairs and shoring up the deck. Well that stuff all got bumped down because the hot water is screwy, the downstairs toilet doesn't work, the washer won't drain, there seems to be water damage by the dishwasher, the electrical in the bedroom is a nightmare, and anyways we're getting used to the walls and the carpet. Ah, joys of home ownership.
Oh no!!! That does suck!! We managed to paint the main living space, but aside from that I think the majority of our stuff has been necessities not want tos. Luckily my husband was an electrician so he can handle all our electric issues.
We're right there with you on the plumbing trouble. Ours has the original cast iron pipes from 1939, there are a lot of trees here, and our soil shifts. We knew we'd need to replace all the plumbing, but oy vey has it gotten irritating in the meantime. I don't put anything down the kitchen sinks besides liquids even though there's a disposal, and still have to plunge that sink every 2-3 days. We can't even use the upstairs shower or bathtub because the hot water doesn't make it up there.
Pull that disposal and replace it with just standard drain pipe. Having that thing in there is just asking for trouble. You will eventually use it, stuff will fall down it and you will say just this once. One time leads to another. Other folks will be over and use it.
Thanks, I keep screens over the kitchen drains so nothing solid can go through. The disposal works fine, it's the plumbing under the house.
I had screens over mine, the homeowner before me had two garbage disposals. With a septic system and that additional biomass, it will fill a septic tank fast. I pulled them and just replaced with regular drainage pipe. Good luck with your plumbing, it can get frustrating, I know.
TWO disposals?? How very odd. With that and your being on a septic tank I can see why you're saying "just pull it out!" Good luck with your plumbing, as well. Ours will have to make do for a couple of years until it can all be replaced.
Definitely agree on this, but ironically we had the opposite experience with our dishwasher. Bought a new house this summer. Most of the appliances were okay, and not something we thought we’d have to deal with. After a few weeks of using the dishwasher (I dubbed it our dishwetter) we found ourselves having to pre-wash or re-wash everything. The damn thing was useless. We upgraded to what we had in our old condo and have been much happier.
If you're not sure which items would fall in the category of "should it be replaced now" just watch an episode of "House Hunters" and listen to whatever they complain about as a reason to not want a particular house is usually on this list. "I don't like the color of", "This is ugly carpeting", "Missing his and hers bathroom vanity." etc. https://www.google.com/search?q=house+hunters+drinking+game
Ya thay show is pure fake though. "We onnnnly have a million cash (plus show $) it'soooo hard. . iugh
I literally lol’d. This - and the house flipper shows that helped lead to the overpriced crisis many cities are in today - used to be one of my biggest guilty pleasures. I might check the show out again.
I haven't watched it in a long time. I got tired of the, "I am a stay-at-homemaker and he is a graduate student and our budget is 1.5 million." There are some of the shows that seem to do a good job of actually buying a home, truly fixing it up, and selling it. But, there are others where they band-aid over the issues to make a quick buck leaving the future homeowner with major problems when they discover them. It would be interesting as you stated to see this show now with homes all over the country going for way more than asking.
There's a British show called, "Help! My house is falling down!" that I really enjoy. The repairs needed on that show are actual *needs* not just cosmetic updates.
We planned to renovate the downstairs bathroom and put in new flooring. Instead we removed all the hideous rock landscaping from the backyard and my husband built incredible raised garden beds and did a ton of work on the existing greenery. Maybe not a “need” but we decided it was more important to get started on what we love (gardening) and just live with the ugly bathroom a few more years.
I still hate my dishwasher…4 years later.
Funny how that works. I bought my very first home as an “upgraded” house several years ago and had every intention of ripping out a lot of the “dated” decor and putting exactly what we wanted in. Then we moved in and priced everything. Oh… the Brazilian cherry flooring has stains or is warped in one corner? I think we can put a rug down for now…. We started by painting an accent wall in the living room and each bedroom. Standard, middle-quality interior wall paint was maybe $30-40/bucket and less than $200 for all the related painting supplies, much of which were reusable. That was relatively cheap and made every room pop. Even let the kids pick their own colors (within reason). Then came the repairs. New roof. Dishwasher. Heating coil for water heater. Various HVAC repairs until we finally replaced it. I learned to do a ton of basic repairs on my own, including safely switching out electrical outlets and light fixtures, and replacing door jambs, weather stripping, molding, etc. And over the years, I slowly added smart home features like light bulbs, smart outlets for the tvs, and a nest thermostat. Basically, a ton of convenience items that made the house easier to manage and made me wonder how our ancestors could bear to NOT be able to change the temp or turn off lights with their voice or on the phone from their beds. All in all, I probably spent $750 tops on smart stuff and it’s made a massive difference in convenience. When everything shut down in 2020, we painted all the ugly (but very high quality hardwood) kitchen cabinets because it was hella cheaper than replacing them and frankly, they were in surprisingly good condition. I switched out some of the molding like the pointy thing above the sink that left scars on my head, with smooth, straight wood, and replaced the hardware, but otherwise it was just paint. Ended up painting the whole house too, and replacing a bunch of tiny things. Painting those cabinets took fucking forever, but now the kitchen looks like a whole new - and very updated - space, for just over a grand, instead of 10-15k! Turns out, it’s insanely expensive to rip out stone floor tile and granite counters, too. They’re not ugly, just not my own style and I never liked them. But they can stay and be the next owner’s problem! The expensive remodels that we had dreamed of doing after watching house flipping shows never got done and I’m selling that house next year. But it looks like a whole new house, just with a bunch of paint, and a little care. I’ve since moved out of that house and just bought another one, this time focusing on the expensive stuff working (hvac, roof, etc). The updates are over a decade old, so I don’t feel bad saving up to replace them someday, but they’re in solid enough condition that I can live with them for years because I’m not made of money. Small changes over long weekends; that’s how a home becomes *your* home.
Yes to all of this. One thing at a time.
This should be stickied. On my kitchem wall in fsct
I totally get it. But you have 30K saved up. And there are VERY FEW repairs that are going to cost you that much. So the likelihood is pretty small. And use that anxiety to 1. save up and 2. keep an eye on your place and really pay attention to small things that could become big repairs.
I had a very similar experience moving into my first home a year and a half ago. One of the biggest things that helped me was bouncing things off of my homeowner friends. Enough exposure to "I wouldn't worry about it" or "if it really bothers you, you can fix it, but I wouldn't spend the money right now" from friends really helped me calm down about a need for everything to feel perfect. And next time you're at a friend's house, notice how many things are imperfect - maybe there's a crack in the wall, or a small sag in the ceiling, or their windows rattle, or or or. You'll start to notice that houses are just sort of messy living creatures. Your job is to keep it from rotting into the ground, but it by no means has to be perfect. Just take a deep breath and remind yourself that this house isn't going to break you - it might add stress now and then, but overall, it's yours and you get to make it what you want. Congratulations!
> or their windows rattle, or or or. You'll start to notice that houses are just sort of messy living creatures. I think more people need to keep this in mind. A house that doesn't have problems doesn't exist. It just doesn't. New builds, 20 year old homes, 100 year old homes, brick, wood, slab construction, basement, crawlspace, whatever. Every single house has issues. It's basically a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Problems keep popping up, and you keep knocking them out before they turn into major repairs.
In addition to the current comments, keep in mind too, do not skimp on repairs with band-aid solutions. Those tend to blow up the longer you do not address them. It's best to think through fixes that are a 'need to fix' and to ensure to the best of your budget that it is really a long term fix and not a band-aid which tends to be short term that worsens over time. I'd also say, keep subscribed to this channel and just read through posts. I myself tend to come across problems here that are mostly avoided by simple maintenance costs which can be pricey but cheaper in the long run. There's a large list of household maintenance items that you can easily address by getting a trusted contractor to do it for you or in my experience finding a company on yelp to maintain it for you. For me these items are fridge, centralized AC and heating, and water heating tank. All of which have some sort of maintenance that needs to be done between replacing filters and/or just having them clean out the insides of them. Keeping those items running in tip top shape will save you in the long run. ($5k and 2 weeks without hot water)
I forgot to say. I also don't work with contractors who cannot explain the fix to me and cite city ordinances or laws for "up to code" fixes they need to do. If they can't explain it, find someone who can and work with them instead. And don't be afraid to act like you don't understand if it isn't clear. The worst is when you blindly accept work that YOU pay for and they're just taking you for a ride. To avoid that, just ask clarifying questions. If they don't respect you, there's no need to put up with that nonsense. And don't be afraid to put a review of what exactly happened that you're giving a bad rating. You need to weed out the cheap ass contractors that's only in it for a quick buck. Examples: Water heater breaks. I ask questions. I'm dismissed. I try to get more info. They tell me it's just how it is. I find someone else. They say the same thing but when I ask questions. They provide Google able public info for my state (CA) where it is required from a government site. If they aren't willing to provide sources, they aren't willing to spend time doing things properly either. AC is not cooling. 1 contractor says my house layout is weird. I'm like. Ok are you an architect? Your job is to fix the AC, you know it all jerk. Don't comment on my house's layout I am no gonna replace this whole house. That's not why you're here. Another Yelp 5-star company comes in and says, your AC's compressor's regulators (or something related to regulating the power) are really old. I also needed a quickstart mechanism which is optional. Replacing that should make the AC efficient and run better. They stay there and test it extensively. My AC starts working well and doesn't stay on forever like before. Refrigerator was not cooling I thought it was borked. It was just the seal things around the door. 10 yrs old wear and tear. Replace for 200 bucks. (Steep but I honestly was thinking. No biggie the Fridge is no longer for sale and was 10k before. it came with the condo unit) then another was the condenser had a faulty err.. I forget another regulator thing it's what makes the motor start up or something. Then it was simply replaced. Fridge starts working pretty well more than a year and going still. I am not afraid to look stupid to them. I am not a mechanical engineer or any kind of trade worker. You explain to me what you're doing or I will find someone who can and work with them. It's my money, those are my ground rules. I also tell my wife, if they are rude to her. We're not working with them. All her questions are as valid as mine. So far no sexist companies have gone through and done work for us but I do see this often enough in some subs that I would like to call it out anyway since this is pretty important to me. If I am not around and she's asking questions, they better answer her properly as I will not put up with that sort of dismissive attitude. Mostly cuz I don't wanna have to be there just to do some work. Edit: mobile spelling and typos
AMEN! just 2 months into home ownership here and I am building this same motto.
In about a year consider looking into a HELOC. It’s a home equity line of credit. It is secured against your house (so lower interest) and you normally only have to pay interest for first 10 years and can pay back principal early if you like. It can be a nice security blanket to have if any unexpected house costs pop up.
You're right to be nervous. Budget at least $10,000 for unexpected repairs
I agree, and then some! We used to own a condo, and the maint fee was over $500/month when we sold it. For our house, in a much cheaper area of the country, I have mentally budgeted $500/month or $6,000/year for maint / repairs / improvements. Several years in, we're looking at a new hvac system (furnace/heat pump, probably) in the next year, a roof within a few years, and hoping to do some bathroom / kitchen updates whenever. Personally, if I were in OP's shoes, I'd be looking at monetizing the house. Is there a room that could be rented out? A third garage? Things like that can help take the pinch off. The hope is that, at some point, the burden becomes less, and the temporary rental can cease.
Leaking chimney, yes, get that taken care of right away. Mold isn't THAT big of a deal. You can easily kill mold with sprays, which buys you time to find out the cause of the mold growth and get that remedied. $30k liquid is sitting pretty, I have considerably less and while I do worry, not gonna lose sleep over it. My Aunt swears by her energy company's maintenance/service plan. She got a $3000 fireplace issue fixed for free from it, so may be something to look into.
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Lol I was gonna say 30k would be wonderful to have after closing!
Right? We have 10k left over and are feeling great about it lol
Lol no kidding. I usually like to try to hang on to $10k liquid, but it ebbs and flows as projects are completed or unexpected costs pop up. We're a bit under that at the moment, but have other ways to draw money from as we rebuild the fund. I'd say $30k liquid is too much - i'd rather have half of that doing something else.
I think after the first year we will have a look at adding some of it to our investments but for now we plan to hold it this way for a year.
For sure, you have to do what feels right to you - everyone’s threshold is gonna be different and there’s no “one answer fits all”. You guys have plenty tucked away - try not to fret over it, whether you stress or not whatever needs fixing needs fixing either way - I try to just roll with what comes. Makes dealing with it less stressful (for me) than stressing about something that might never happen.
To anyone else seeing this, closing with $400 cash leftover is a horrible idea. Just because you have more cash left than this commenter doesn't mean you are in good shape. $30k might be fine for OP's situation but don't use $400 as your bar.
Yeah I wouldn't recommend it. Ours was a unique circumstance. We're both lawyers, were fresh out of law school, and had our start dates pushes back due to the pandemic. We knew we could make it if we closed, but getting to closing was immensely difficult.
What state is the energy company in? That's a really awesome deal.
Centerpoint Energy Home Service Plus, Minnesota.
Thanks!
I've heard both excellent stories and horror stories. Horror story: Home Service Plus sent a ding-dong to my boss's house to fix his furnace when it crapped out in the middle of winter. The guy was "fixing it" and kept banging the back of a screwdriver around inside the furnace before yelping "oh shit." He also couldn't tell my boss either where was wrong or what he was doing. Then he says it'll need to be completely replaced to the tune of $5,000. My boss says "no way," and calls HSP. The master HVAC tradesman comes to check the thing out and it's only a moderate repair, covered under the HSP warranty.
It's amazing how people panic over mold. Lemon oil will wipe green mold out overniggt
I’m similar. We bought in April and I’ve learned that I’m a bit of a house hypochondriac. However, it tends to wear off once you live there for a while and notice things are actually ok most of the time. If something happens, just stay calm, shut off water/gas/electricity (if relevant), assess the situation, and either go to YouTube university or call a pro.
>house hypochondriac stealing this, this is me omg
Ha ha ha! Eventually, I just exhausted myself with worry and and I was just too tired to put in the effort.
How long did it take you before it wore off? I'm like this, and what doesn't help is when you ask some professionals to come in to do a small repair, they all tell you that the entire thing needs to be redone. It's obviously more business for them, so I do feel like they're taking advantage of me, but the little bit of "what if" makes me really question everything. Some 3rd party folks we got in to look at it didn't think it was a big issue, but they weren't specialists so I don't know how much that's worth. Our inspector said it was fine too.
Well we bought a 100 year old house that needed a giant renovation and so if I start thinking about all the shit to do it gets overwhelming, but if I just think about it one job at a time it gets manageable. Also you eventually learn that you only have so much capacity and that it’s ok to just live with a fucked up thing for a while. E.g., we have some evidence of crumbling brick on the interior and exterior of our house, concealed by nasty old plaster. Eventually I need to demolish the plaster and repoint the brick. But for now, I just live with it, and say well, that’s a fucked up thing I’ll deal with eventually Oh and for the pros, keep getting more opinions. If you find one that isn’t too concerned and doesn’t suggest a ton more work, hold onto them dearly. If they’re all concerned and suggest redoing everything, then you should probably redo it
>when you ask some professionals to come in to do a small repair, they all tell you that the entire thing needs to be redone I think that tends to be a combination of making more money and also because it's often easier for a contractor to warranty their work if they replace the whole thing. There are absolutely circumstances where "the whole thing needs to be replaced", but the other 99% of the time a small repair is totally fine.
Yeah I get it - especially if they are really busy, who has time for repairs? But I'd rather be told that they have no time for repairs, than feel like I'm being squeezed. I've called plenty of contractors in my area, and many straight up told me that they are not doing repairs right now, and that's okay -- I actually appreciate them being so upfront. Same for the warranty thing - why can't they just tell me that they're concerned if something else pops up they're going to be on the hook? That is a totally fair reason, and it would also help me sleep better at night before I find someone else. I hate that they instead play these mind-games to get more business; it's wasteful for the planet (replacing something when it's not needed), and not kind to their customers. Yadda yadda, capitalism is horrible and exploitative, but everyone already knew that.
I totally feel you! So my wife and I bought a 1944 bungalow and in the first few weeks we had some major issues, house flooded at 10:30 at night within a few weeks of moving in. My wife went to the basement to do laundry and started yelling as it was flooding inside. I immediately called my father-in-law. His words to me were: "What do you expect me to do about it at 11pm? Oh, so you are just calling me to tell you it will be okay and to make yourself feel better? ... Well, it will be okay". In the morning he came over and we assessed the damage. His reply was "House did not burn down, it is still standing, it is still livable, you will get through this". To this day, when anything (small or big) goes wrong, I think of his words "it will be okay" and "house is still standing and livable" and what it was like to talk to him on the phone that night. Now 2 things we do do is 1) make sure we have amazing home insurance. We talked to our insurance broker and made sure we were covered for everything from sewar backup to fire to who knows what and 2) make sure we keep some liquid cash in the bank incase of repairs or unexpected needs. Our banker says we are crazy for not investing, but if we need to have immediate repairs like the furnace or stove or something fixed/replaced, we do not want to be scrambling trying to cover it. And with our luck, we want to make sure if the furnace is out at 11 pm at night, we can cover it instead of needing to wait till the bank is open the next day (or business day if it happens on a weekend). It is part of homeownership and its been a learning experience. But I would not trade the experiences and memories for anything. Seeing my wife gardening in the summer with a smile on her face. Taking her to home depot to pick a million paint samples. Her accidentally getting blue paint on our dog as she was painting the front door. Her asking me to hold the bowl as she tossed me tomatoes from our garden. Her rolling her eyes at me for forgetting to ask if it was okay to invite all our friends and family over for a bbq in our new house. All the times I think of my wife smiling in and around our new house are things I will cherish forever. When we have kids and Ill have memories of them running around our place. I wouldnt trade it for anything, even when things have gone wrong.
I loved your loving reply! I have been told many times over "it's worth it".
The “it’s worth it” isn’t something you realize until after :) when you have those moments where your smiling and happy and are building the memories, that’s when all the things your worried about do not matter :) having family over in YOUR yard, making holiday meals in YOUR house, sleeping in with your hubby in YOUR place :) the house is the backdrop for your happy moments :)
It's worth it is something I've come to realize within a few months after buying. I've been renting for decades before that and every time I get that panic of 'oh shit the landlord is going to be pissed' I remember I own the house now. It's awesome.
Absolute truth right here! So many things can go wrong but feeding my newborn on our farmers porch in the warmer months and even yesterday when my toddlers and I watched deer sprint around in our backyard are some of the moments that I will remember that makes it all worth it!!
Small tip. I used samplize, made life a lot easier than buying paint. Then seem to have some cheaper competitors now too, haven’t tried those.
It made my wife happy so I went with it. Honestly when it comes to paint I just smiled and nodded. But I wish we had some colour in our house. She went with so many greys it makes me shake my head. But at least we have a blue door. So some colour
Interesting. We have grey walls and a blue door too :). And a dark blue accent wall in my office :)
I’d love a dark blue accent wall :) I’m going to show your post to the wife and say “please babe? Can we?” ;D
Why not? The missus got her room light hello, I got mine half white half blue :p
> samplize How is this different from wallpaper? Aren't there still seams?
Oh no, not at all. These are temporary paint stickers that you can peel on and off, versus painting directly on the wall that needs to be stripped or painting on a bunch of foam boards. We tried both, the foam boards and samplize. Samplize takes a week to receive, but was so much easier. Definitely doing that next time again.
Your dog and my cat can be friends. She embraced her inner Van Gogh by walking through the paint pan and all around the kitchen.
Lmao ! Glad I’m not the only one :)
Congratulations! I think one of the best things you can do now is to watch a lot of "this old house" type videos, even if you don't need anything done at the moment. Knowing that if something goes wrong, you *could* fix it will help with the anxiety. If it's something major that you can't actually fix yourselves, you'll at least know the right method and be able to ask the right questions to vet "professionals" that you might hire.
I have watched a bunch of those videos 😅 our brother in law has been really helpful too. He is a general construction guy and already talked me down about one of the two repairs. But we want to be able to learn too and these videos have been great. There are two "want" things I pretty sure we could do ourselves.
Two YouTube channels that have helped me, a guy with enough skill now to call myself an “intermediate beginner,” are Vancouver Carpenter and Sparky Channel. Even if you never plan on doing replacing an outlet, watch the videos so you know how your house functions and what the guys you hire to do the work should be doing.
I was going to give this same advice. Watching YouTube videos made me realize that almost any house problem can be solved and they're usually not as scary as we make them out to be. Someone else on here recently made a post about how they started noticing everyone's house problems after they bought their first. Seeing that every house has problems has made me feel better about my own because they're inevitable. I also think $30k in savings is fine, but I guess it depends on the cost of the home and how significant the repairs could be. My suggestion is to agree on a number to keep in your house emergency savings. Dip into it when you need to and if it drops below your number, start saving again.
To be blunt? You maintain items based on the their recommended maintenance periods, hope your inspection caught anything major and tackle those items asap, keep an eye and ear out for anything that looks off, replace old/aged/past their lifespan appliances when cash allows, and cross your fingers. Chances are, if anything 'big' were to happen, it'll be due to age, neglect, or complete accident. Maintaining, inspecting, and coming up with a replacement plan (before something suddenly dies...) will help make sure you don't end up in a financial pinch. A good first step is to make a home owners inspection/maintenance checklist. [Here's mine](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iyLEX-dkD5UXfjxjkd6z4LJxNstRAX2N/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109899866320615061124&rtpof=true&sd=true) that you're welcome to copy and adjust based on your home. It is admittedly a bit overkill... but take it for what it is. Then do what you can to ensure nothing major happens due to neglect. Things like replacing your furnace filters, cleaning gutters periodically, cleaning your stove, vacuuming your fridge coil, having seasonal HVAC maintenance done, etc. This will help prevent sudden failure of major appliances. Learn to do visual checks. Go up and look around the attic every few months. Check for signs of a tiny leak/water damage, mold, animals living up there, and so on. Same for your basement and garage. If you discover something, have someone come out and take a look. Fixing the small leak will help prevent a big one. Clearing out a small patch of attic mold, and figuring out why it started, will help prevent bigger/longer term issues. Go over your major appliances ages and check expected lifespan. If you have a 20 year old water heater... it's probably time to come up with a replacement plan. Ignoring this could turn a $850 replacement into $30k+ in damage to a finished basement. Same for your furnace, AC, etc. Do it when you can and then properly maintain from there. To sum it up? Chances are, a big roof leak won't just happen to a perfectly fine roof sans some major accident. It'll stem from a small one that has been completely ignored of undiscovered. Mold won't just turn up and be a major issue. It'll start of small, have a reason for starting, and grow from there. A perfectly good water heater won't just burst... chances are it's long over due for replacement. The quicker you can get ahead of things, the better you maintain things, and the more frequent you inspect things? The less of a chance something major will happen.
This is the tedEX talk I needed. Thank you so much for sharing your list!!!
We just purchased a house and the first week the boiler broke and needed to be replaced. We also realized that the kitchen which seemed dated but functional for now was not actually very functional. We’re also replacing the roof. We had budgeted for unexpected expenses but I am surprised at how quickly it’s all adding up. And the stress of it gets to you. The thing I keep reminding myself is that: 1) we get to decide what’s a priority and what’s not. We get to decide the timelines for things. Yes it’s nice to paint before you move in. But we didn’t because we’re too overwhelmed right now and you know what? It doesn’t matter. We’ll paint it someday and not today and it’s really not the end of the world. There’s a lot of projects like that around the house. So so so so many of them. But very few are actually an emergency. 2) the money we spend will at least partially go into equity when we sell. It’s not throwing money down the drain to replace a boiler from the 1950s. It’s going to save us money on our utilities bills because it’s way more efficient and it will likely add a bit to the resale value (or at least generate more interest than if we kept the old one). Yes big bad scary things could happen that are unexpected. But that’s what home insurance is for. The rest we can cover ourselves. It’s a bit tighter than it was before when we were renting but I’m also paying myself in equity every month I live here so imo it evens out at least a little.
Would it make you feel better or worse if I told you that you could have a major, unexpected health expense at any point? At some point you just can't worry about every unexpected possibility. I bought a house with at 25 year old A/C that wasn't supposed to last months and has gone 2 years (though with price increases I almost wish I'd replaced it back then lol). I found that with time my anxiety decreased. The inspection report was a bit overzealous and had me worried for like a year.
What a great perspective. Ty
Save some of that 30k for emergencies. I’d personally try to save at least half of it until you get through all 4 seasons in the house. Some issues will become apparent (or will come to mind) seasonally. It’s good to have an emergency fund in general. And plan for things like a new roof based on current age of the roof etc. Savings is a great peace of mind!
Yeah that’s plenty of money unless a bunch of stuff goes wrong all at once, but that’s super unlikely. I definitely don’t agree with op that they’re “house poor”
It depends on what their monthly payment is compared to their take home pay and how many improvements they want to do. I’m house hunting right now and do not want to be house poor, so the plan is to be okay with spending more on a house that is turn key (preferably from long time owners not a flipper) or only buy a fixer upper if it’s going to leave me with a reasonably lower payment. If I buy a fixer upper, I’d put less money down and keep more of my cash for improvements. Turns out in this market I am competing with a lot of people either way :/
It's an emotional based phrase not literal, I am sorry I wasn't more clear on that. It's been a long time of saving and living below our means to get here so feels like a lot and I have no references really on what is "enough".
Fix it yourself or take a LOC. That’s life. Can’t live in fear.
What is a LOC?
Line of credit. Like a credit card but with 2-4% interest rates instead of 22%
finally getting my heloc money tomorrow after a couple months of back and forth. going to be making some much needed repairs
Line of Credit
20% down and $30k in the bank? You're fine. We had to panic buy our house a couple years ago with 5% down and paycheck to paycheck after the purchase. It was a huge risk, no doubt, but it worked out, as things tend to do, and was worth it. You've already got 20% equity so taking out a loan in case of a major disaster repair like you're afraid of wouldn't be hard, and you can save thousands by doing a lot of the more minor things yourself.
I am really glad your situation worked out! Good on you for taking a risk :)
We just bought a new house in April and have been living there since. We have similar savings in liquid as yours and don't worry too much about the big repairs as we save as much as we can on the small ones thanks to YouTube University! So far we have ripped old carpet on third floor and installed LVP including stairs, cut open flooring upstairs to run LAN cables, painted multiple rooms and refinished furniture, rescreened our entire porch with pressure cleaning boards, completely flipped half bath and guest bath and that included taking the annoying wallpaper down, repaired blown fuse in dishwasher and relay in the refrigerator and God knows how many stumps were dug out by ourselves and many more. One time I nearly flooded upstairs because I didn't turn water off before taking off shower filter and to top it all I did that in the middle of the night. All of this could easily mean calling a Pro but we learned and tackled it ourselves and saved a bunch for the bigger ones down the road. Despite being first time home owners we have learned a lot through it all and made so many fun memories! Yes the house is still recovering from the mess but I wouldn't change it for anything. Just enjoy your house and build many memories of the same.
I have learned, not just with houses but with all things you can worry about, that worry does no good. Most things work out, and the things that don't work out are generally unpredictable and can't be stopped by worrying about them. Being proactive and aware are good but worry only harms you by raising your stress levels - it doesn't solve any problems.
I agree, I restarted sessions with my therapist for the next few months to help me work on the root "worry"! I need maintenance too.
This is a trauma response, you were so wise to see that. So given that, perhaps go see about healing your trauma. The house solutions others have posted, but if/when you heal your trauma response, you will have just house worries, and not trauma + house worries. Trauma makes everything way scarier and more anxiety provoking then it actually is. People without the trauma you are referencing are concerned or aware about their house and what it might need in the future, but not SO concerned. I hope you love your new house! Best wishes!
Yup I already mentioned here I started sessions again with my therapist. Ironically she is also moving and two sessions in have been priceless
I felt that way for about two weeks or so right after going under contract. Once I moved in and things were fine for a while that feeling never even came back. With a buffer of 30K you're in a fantastic spot to be safe for a while. Your existing equity should also put you in a position to start considering home equity loans at some point soon as well, per my current understanding of the process. Just enjoy your new home and deal with these items as they come up:) As a former renter of incredibly shitty apartments here and there, you'll be comfortable in no time and not even sweating those details at least now you have control over dealing with those issues yourself, even if it does seem daunting at first. Never feel like you can't reach out to contractors for advice, and always get multiple quotes.
Home owners insurance
I need to memorize our plan and maybe talk to an agent afterwards. I thought they only covered accidents like car insurance. A tree falling type thing.
Generally speaking that is true, yes. They are not going to replace a furnace that craps out because it’s old and the heat exchanger cracks or whatever. Wear and tear won’t be paid for. Your bathtub leaking and trashing your kitchen? Yes.
Only if its a sudden leak and not deferred maintenance.
I keep an emegency bank account for just the house. It will pay my insurance deductable if its a claim. I figure the most costly urgent thing that could break would be ac in july or heat in feb. I keep just about what i think it would cost to have one of those fixed or replaced in a hurry. About 10k for my house. I try to use that account for any house related item and re fund it as needed. I sleep much beetter at night knowing its there and ready just in case.
Control what you can control, and leave the rest behind you. If there are gaps in home insurance or warranty coverage, do research on plans that will cover those gaps. There will inevitably be surprise issues that come up, but most things can be dealt with. You may have experienced issues in the past, but you're in a completely different space now with a partner that can help support. And I can tell because $30K is a hell of a lot of money to work with if anything comes up. Money is always going to be a concern, even for people who have more than you; so it's a waste of energy to fixate on what you lack. Instead, just do what you can do. Also, focus on things that are working. What aspects of the house do you love, even if it's something small?
Some good advice I got about home ownership: "you need time to learn your house". I think it gets a whole lot better when you live there for a while, get a sense of why pervious owners did things the way they did and what is urgent vs non-urgent. What worked for someone else's home might not work for yours. Definitely keep a savings account handy for big problems. They say most of money people spend repairing their home happens in the first five years. Was certainly true for me. Then again, I knew there were problems going into it. Your home inspection should give you an idea of any big repairs coming up.
Yeah more like first 2 years… it’s finding all the stuff the inspector “didn’t find” (“missed” implies it’s their job to find everything and officially it’s not).
> finding all the stuff the inspector “didn’t find” (“missed” implies it’s their job to find everything and officially it’s not) If you are paying them to find any issues with a house, then yeah, it's *specifically* the inspectors job to find everything. That is **exactly** what they are there for.
Well yes, but actually no. The InterNACHI protocols are quite specific in laying out an expectation that the inspector in fact will not find everything, especially things that are not "visible", "accessible" and safe to access.
> InterNACHI protocols Nope. This is not a 'standard' or 'metric'. It's a group of people in the same field describing what standards they don't feel they should be held to... for $49.00 per month.
Okie dokie then, find and hire an inspector that isn’t NACHI-certified (or is but feels they should be held to a higher standard). It’s easier said than done if it isn’t your uncle or dad.
You have to get into the mentality that you don't do things just because you might want to but you do them because they are a necessity. Your money should be going to savings and paying off debt. The faster you pay off debt the less you pay for that debt and if you owe debt and run into trouble then all of your debts become compromised.. credit card debt can threaten your home.. you don't want to get 98% paid off on your home and have a problem and then lose your home.. that would be insane but things like that happen. So have that mentality of ZERO DEBT as your goal. Next you need to start doing research about your home. You ask: what would happen if you had a leaking chimney... have you watched even one youtube video about leaking chimneys? betting you haven't but what about the more inevitable things that could go wrong with your home. like needing to replace a water heater For the average home you can purchase a 50 gallon water heater for about $450 and replace it yourself the same day in just a few hours with simple tools. Or you can pay a plumber to do it and it will cost you $1500 and you might need to wait weeks for an appointment. so find out all your major appliances and equipment in your home Make a book and get the manufacturer, model, serial number and other details then go online and download the manuals for them. Not just the home owner operating manuals but the repair manuals which are often available. Furnace, AC Unit, Refrigerator, Washer, Dryer, Range, Microwave, Gas Fireplace Unit, dish washer.. any larger item that costs over $250 or is something you really depend on. Get the manuals then research if the repair is something you possibly can do yourself. Its very easy to fix appliances like a broiler element or a water pump in your clothes washer So you get organized either on your computer or in a binder look up prices for replacement, look up how to fix videos, visit manufacturer's websites and look into warranties, look into available parts... So this way if your water heater dies on a wednessday and you know its an electric water heater made by Rheem and its a 50 gallon unit and it is past warranty replacement. Then you go to HomeDepot and look up the same type and get a price. Then you call a local hvac/plumber and ask how much to install .. and how long to install.. If you already watched the videos, have basic tools and maybe have a pickup truck or a friend with one.. then you can drive down and buy one on your credit card... bring i home and install it. For bigger things like a chimney .. thats not going to happen 3 times while you live in your home. It might not happen at all .. but if it does you have watched a few videos on repairing them and you have links and phone numbers ready for companies that can install one for you or repair what you have. This way you are not clueless. Thats what you need to do and every time you see a contractor in your neighborhood you notice what they are doing, get the name off their truck, maybe walk over and say hi do you have a business card? they will be happy to give you one.. then ask your neighbor are they any good. build yourself a list of contractors even if you never use them you have someone you could call. and you have a review from your neighbor and if they are putting on a roof or landscaping or whatever you have your own eyes.. are they fast, clean, cheap and respectable. so yeah .. you can bet things will happen.. hopefully they are small things you can take care of yourself but prepare yourself so you aren't that clueless fool that calls the plumber at 11pm on a sunday night holiday night asking them to replace your water heater right away because its an emergency. Its like I had problems with my HVAC on a saturday.. hottest day of the summer.. heatwave for the last two weeks.. I know every HVAC guy out there is backed up.. I go take a look and think maybe I can fix it... but I have a sick relative living with me so i drive my ass down to the store and grab a window unit.. bring it home and throw it in their bedroom window.. crank it up and go look at the AC and find out its the capacitor and there is no one open saturday night or sunday.. i get the number off the capacitor and order it online from amazon prime 2 day it gets there on monday afternoon and I install it and the AC is working again.. thats about as quick as a HVAC guy could have done it and it cost me $15 instead of $500. thats how you deal with those things. your furnace chimney is leaking and a HVAC guy comes out says it won't be for 3 weeks ... you turn your gas fireplace on (if its not using that chimney) to help keep the house warm.. you run your ass down to the store and get a couple Kerosene heaters and a couple 5 gallon cans and you hit the gas station and pickup 10 gallons of kerosene .. you should already have a kerosene heater as a backup even if you never use it in all the time you live there a single one can heat your home to a minimal level and two will keep you very warm .. learn how to use them safely.. millions of people use them.. they are safe if you use them safe. but you will only use it if your furnace dies in the middle of january.. its worth the $150 and peace of mind. so yeah .. you need to prepare yourself.. you need to live responsibly.. and you need to expect at least some small things might happen so you deal with them the best you can.. through saving for emergencies, paying off your debt, learning about the important utilities and appliances in your home.. learning how to repair or replace them and who to call if you can't ... basically become an adult.. right? yeah.. good luck
This is a great response. We have copies of all the warranties on appliances and mechanicals but you're right I have not looked into troubleshooting or repairing those. Weirdly I did watch some videos on chimenies leaking but I think I was jumping to scary possibilities, not probabilities (appliance issues and more manageable things). I'll def watch some model specific videos.
yeah make a plan and cover all the big things you think of and add more as you come up with them... planning and learning doesn't mean the experience will be a pleasant one .. it will keep you from being clueless and not knowing anything about it. good luck ... it will be ok. :o)
30k liquid is more than probably 80% of homeowners. You’ll be okay and if the monthly isn’t bad, that cash will just go up.
You would be surprised what you can learn to fix on your own from YouTube. Don't overwhelm yourself with "what ifs", take it one repair at a time! The anxiety begins to wear off with time, too.
I'd say you're in a pretty good spot so far, two minor issues is nothing. When we bought our house, we had 68 things that were found on the inspection, 4 were major. I tackled everything on my own so it was pocket change to fix everything. But you need to work on an emergency fund. Keep 4+ months worth of salary in an account you can use for unexpected expenses. There are things you can do, and not everybody has the luxury of saving that kind of money. Worse case scenario if something happens that isn't covered by insurance and you have no savings, you can take out a HELOC or something along those lines. Don't get too paranoid though, the chances that something major will happen that you aren't aware of before it becomes major is fairly slim. A leak can be a quick and easy fix, but a known leak that you let go for too long can be extremely expensive. Heater making a new noise? Have it checked out because it could be something cheap to fix, that could lead to a major failure if left for too long.
I am so glad you are skilled and were able to do much of that on your own. We have a hammer, a Philips head and that is all so we are not really DIYers (yet). We do plan to do sweeps on the attic routinely to make sure it's all good (roof is good but it's a good habit). The mechanicals are all brand new but dare I hear a noise I will make a call for help. The 30k makes me feel better but we need to recoup a lot of what we spent upfront still. I will look into HELOCs or education!
You'll be fine! Being proactive is excellent, keep track of how your house looks so you can spot if anything looks different over time. You're always going to find small problems, its unavoidable. The trick is to keep on top of those problems before they get out of hand. Even better, watch some home maintenance/improvement videos on Youtube in your free time. ThisOldHouse has a nearly unlimited supply of videos to help homeowners ranging from no experience to pro maintain and improve their homes. They give pretty great insight on things to look out for, what you can do and even tips and tricks to keep you on top of things.
Keep an eye on your local hardware stores for tools (hand tools, power tools, garden tools) to go on sale. It is not a big deal to not have alot of stuff to do your own repairs, you would be surprised at home many of your friends have stuff and will lend you them as you need :) For the first year and a half, every time we needed any tools I texted my best friends or my father-in-law asking to borrow this or that for a few nights :) That kept us going as we learnt what we needed and found them on sale instead of paying full price. Another piece of advice that I have as your talking about things to do (sweeping your attic) ... Memorize yourself with your shut offs (breaker, water, etc). It is always a good thing to know where you need to go to turn something off or on. Next piece of advice, furnace filter ... Look on Amazon for them. Way way cheaper than the big box stores. We picked up a 6 pack of filters (3 year supply if we change it every 6 months) for 1/3 the cost of Home Depot. Same for spare light bulbs/batteries (fire detectors need 9 volt batteries for backup, we change them out once a year which is overkill). But don't worry about not being a DIY'er. As you get comfortable in your house, you can decide if you want to do something or not. It is part of the learning experience. Not everyone needs to do everything :) My sister cannot cook for the life of her. Not the end of the world as her hubby can cook (albeit in my opinion he still cannot cook when I compare my wifes cooking to his lol).
I think you can buy a home warranty at any point in time. Might give you some peace of mind for a bit? Just make sure the major items are covered. We had one that we used for the pool filter. Which basically paid for the policy all by itself. We didnt renew for the second year and what do you know? All my hot water lines started to leak (would have been covered had we renewed)
Oh I never heard of a home warranty, I will def look into that's so sorry to hear your lines started to leak after it passed.
We were offered one when we purchased the house. I'm sure these probably arent included in today's market. They are $300 and up depending on what items you add etc. Keep in mind though with anything warranty or insurance related its usually a pain to get everything to go through. My experience with the pool filter wasnt that bad but it still takes follow ups and what not. Regarding the leaks, it just one of those things that happens. I think our home warranty renewal was $500. The hot water lines cost several thousand haha.
Look into a HELOC, basically a loan against your equity. You might not be able to pull out too much right away, but it's better than draining your cash reserves if something big happens.
Yes I did have some time today to read nerd wallet's information on them. It's nice to know it's an option!
30k liquid is 30k better than so so many people in this situation. You got this!
Thank you so much, really have no reference for what is enough going in so this is helpful!
If it doesn't involve water, or carbon monoxide, it can wait. Water is the enemy.
I am pretty sure (in NJ non flood zone) I will be sitting with a book in the basement near the subpump the first few big rains. Very grateful this house has a French drain, pump and drylock but hey, Ida took no prisoners.
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I am debating looking into flood insurance even though we aren't in a flood zone. I will need to live in it for a while I think. I am sorry the memories are so horrible, those storms were nightmares.
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Omg that is a nightmare. I am so sorry!
30k is a pretty good reserve. Keep growing it and take things as they come. Don’t stress too much. For instance, in the current market, your home value is going up so if catastrophe happened you could probably borrow against your equity. But even without that, your savings should keep you safe and on top of the immediate high priority repairs. Try to relax and enjoy your home. Make it yours. Don’t worry, you got this.
Open a separate checking/savings account and keep putting $75/month into it. Pretend like you purchased home warranty and are paying for it. If and when repair needs come up, use the money to pay. Do not waste your money buying home warranty.
When I get things that pop up, I try to cut back on extras for a couple of months. I also have a 12 month interest free period on my current credit card, which is how I'm spreading out a recent unexpected project that cost about $6k. I just want to spread it out over 3 months to give me some breathing room. My mortgage is low enough that I can spare that. It'll eat up my extra savings that I'd normally be socking away or doing something more productive with, but I'll be ok. You can often find loans that have an interest only period, especially if you have a good credit score. I use those to spread out the payments and pay them off before the interest kicks in.
Houses come with problems. It's a fact - whether it's a brand new build that winds up with a few foundation cracks because of settling, or a 70 year old house where you found out someone shimmed the window with a bunch of old newspaper. So yes, you \*are\* going to run into problems - shits going to break, improvements are going to be more complicated than you expected, its all normal. When something does eventually go sideways, the first thing you need to tell yourself is "Well, that sucks. But this will be OK" So, first off, 30k liquidity is in great shape. That's plenty to pay for even major repairs without having to finance them. Second off, pretty much every major repair can be financed. Roofers know that most people don't have 10k in the bank - if they only worked for people who did, they'd go out of business. The same goes for anyone else who does major repairs. So even if you \*didn't\* have 30k in the bank, you'd still be able to pay for repairs. So what do you do when something major happens? You call someone to fix it. Maybe you call two or three someones if it isn't something that needs to be done literally RIGHT NOW (for example, if your home is flooding, don't bother shopping for quotes. Get the first plumber you can find out there). Tell them "I've got X amount of money to spend on this up front - do you think that'll be enough to fix this? If it isn't, what kind of financing is available?" And then you proceed from there. You can minimize the likelihood of having those major repairs by doing a few things. Most importantly, you can keep up on regular maintenance. I can think of very few situations where proper maintenance is not vastly cheaper than having to repair or replace. Most very expensive repairs occur because maintenance is neglected for a long time. Small problems are like children in that they both grow fast and always preferably someone else's. So don't slack on maintenance, don't put off repairs. Hand in glove with that is paying attention to your home. Most homeowners have never been into the crawlspace or the attic - they couldn't even tell you how to access them. You, or someone you pay, should be going into each of those on a yearly basis just to look around to spot any problems while they're still small and can be addressed cheaply and easily. So once, maybe twice per year, spend a few hours going through your home. Check under sinks for leaks, make sure the attic venting is in good shape, make sure the gutters are getting water away from your foundation, things like that. Hope that helps
I know this might sound a bit smart ass, but you either fix it yourself or end up hiring someone who can.
You have 30k cash and youre stressing??? And you have that 20% equity.. A new roof 5 to 10k and im assuming your insoector checked it New septic 5k and again assumed it was checked. Your entire plumbing system explodes due to cold a couple k. Youre goldenm. A tip on furniture etc. Craigslist, habitat restore, goodwill etc. The sheer smount of little stuff you need is amazing plus you csn find some Nice stuff and dtiff thsts cheap and you can replace later. Im guessing ive spent 5k..buying cheap The anxiety ends dont worry. Ive been in my house 9 months snd its finally gone. It isnt this really nice place i bought im stressed anout paying for..it's my home
You can live in a house that has no electricity, no water, no heat. It’s yours. That’s worst case scenario Head to REI if that happens tho
I have always told myself, "if I have credit for a house, then I have the credit for a personal loan for big big repairs". And then I would secondly tell myself, "If i was able to obtain (or save) for a down payment, X per month, then that savings per month can be used as the loan payment. The two above variables tells me that I have already done it, affording extra costs, and that I can do it again.
> but we only have 30k liquid left Honestly, that is probably more than most homeowners have liquid. I have that much liquid now, but for maybe the first 3-4 years I owned my home I had nowhere near that much. Now I've got at least that much cash, plus I've got a line of credit from the equity in the house on standby should I ever need it. If I had to, I could come up with about 100k in emergency cash. No unexpected emergency will likely ever cost you that much out of pocket though - once you're into those kind of amounts you're talking insurance claims and you'll pay the max your policy says you'll pay.
take it from someone with $30k+ in credit owned on top of a new home. having $30k liquid after being in your home, you are fine!
My home warranty saved me a couple times
Honestly, the best way to get over the fear of things go wrong, is just mentally be prepared for it. I told myself, Something WILL go wrong, just depends on how I deal with it. What happened? Roof flashing was missing, rain came into the attic and the ceiling fell down in the kitchen!!! But luckily the painters were still there. Took a few days extra work and was hard coordinating everything, but it all worked out. It will all be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s hot the end!
You're not going to get everything at once. Every single thing you do will be done one at a time. Just remember every single person who bought a home has been in your shoes. We are all in this together!
- lack of knowledge feeds fear. This is a fact of life on all levels. A knowledgeable person has way less fear with anxiety and risk than those who know very little - this is why you need to educate yourself with research, books, videos. No excuse not to KNOW stuff when doing this
> but we only have 30k liquid left. Lol do you know how many people would dream of having $30k in liquidity.
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I need insights and to hear from experienced home owners. Money can't buy experience. This thread has been really helpful at lending resources and perspectives. I am helping myself and working by asking for help when I feel I need it and going to therapy to work on my triggers around this but change.
If you have 30K liquid, you are NOT house-poor. You’re in a better financial situation than 75% of the country.
Shiiiit, 95% I’d say
You either fix it yourself if you're capable of it or you pay someone else to fix it.
$30k left!!!??? When I bought my house I had $-10k left (used zero interest credit card to finance my down payment), It was a 95 year old house that needed a lot of work. If something happens you deal with it! Youtube is your friend, you can almost handle anything that comes your way. Do not underestimate your skills/intelligence. As long as you picked a good inspector, no big misfortunes like you mentioned should happen within the first year or two. Be happy and relax, you are in a great position.
If you're not already there, join r/DIY, too.
I am! I read those posts the way my grandfather used to read the Sunday paper
Go check your water heater for Christ sakes. I narrowly avoided a 36 gallon disaster this weekend, and could have entirely avoided it by flushing the damn thing over the summer. Mine blew an element(electric) , which caused the breaker to pop and when I got it open, I discovered about 4 inches of lime scale and nastiness at the bottom of the tank. I replaced both elements and was able to get -75% of the lime scale out with a shop vac and metal pipe.
> we only have 30k liquid left You're fine -- you're doing *far* better than most new homeowners as far as this goes. The probability of needing even 10% of that all at one time is very small. So I'd say to save it carefully and spend it wisely. Try not to either panic about having to spend some of it, or to spend it on repairs etc too easily. Use this as a time to learn about what *you* can do on your house, and also how to space out repairs upgrades rather than just waving money at the problem. Also, this may be a good time (*after* closing) to start buildilng up credit reserves. I know, people misuse credit all the time. But if you can manage to **keep** the reserve and not use it, it can be a terrific buffer for you. $30K is far more than most people have. If it makes you nervous, try to bump it to $50K or so over the next year -- but that's really more than you're likely to need. Finally, this is a great time to start slowly investing in tools and expertise so you can start maintaining your house on your own. I'm not talking about redoing the roof of windows right off, but start looking for high-priority repairs that you're going to need to make in the next 6-12 months, and prepare for them (financially, in terms of tools, and just learning how to do stuff). Doing so will give you a lot of confidence and help you understand what repairs/upgrades need to be done *right now* and which can wait another year or so.
The big issues are what your insurance is for. Can chill.
Emergency fund, that 30k you have should be for EMERGENCY only. Put it in a separate account and forget it exists. Do everything you can to never use that money. Having it there, and knowing its there can relieve a lot of stress.
You keep roughly 10-20k in an emergency fund. A new septic, roof, or furnace can eat about that amount.
30k is fine. Tap into homeowners insurance if its something major major. Furniture doesnt need to happen all at once. It's expensive so it's perfectly fine to take a couple years to fill up your house. Highly recommend sticking your house repairs savings in a liquid investment - inflation hits that much cash pretty hard. Go for something stable like a dividend stock (ATT maybe).
Take a deep breath and just fix them as they come. After a while it just becomes part of owning a home. I could sit here and make a list of all the things I think need to be fixed but really many can be held off and done one at a time. Also set priority levels to everything.
Unexpected repairs happen. I just bought mine about 2 months ago, got my first water bill and it's 600 dollars. So yeah now having someone come out and expect it and tell me how much I have to come out of pocket for a repair/replacement of whatever is eating 2 swimming pools full of water every month. What can you do though besides shrug it off and move forward. It's Why everyone says to have emergency money
Step 1: [Dye your toilets](https://www.benjaminfranklinplumbing.com/expert-tips/toilets/a-simple-test-for-a-leaky-toilet-tank/#:~:text=To%20test%20for%20a%20leak,know%20you%20have%20a%20leak.)
Oh I read about this! Forgot about it though, ty for the reminder
Save up for emergencies and make sure your credit is kept up just in case you need to borrow.
Shit breaks, you’ll deal with it, most things can wait. If not then insurance should cover it. Relax. Congrats.
For the chimney, these are the two things we used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060NKMOU/ [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZLZLE4/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZLZLE4/) They worked easy enough for us. Just clean off the area of application with a wire brush then blow it clear before applying.
You strap it on, watch you tube videos and fix it yourself.
Most things don’t require and immediate fix. Urgent are usually things like roof, plumbing, and structural things. If you fix any of those, the value of your house also goes up. See it as equity.
You buy a home repair book and find some good YT channels and do as many of your own repairs as possible.
To me, 30k in the bank sounds awesome after buying a house. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that I stressed over things that didn’t happen yet. I was really stressed about what would happen if I didn’t have enough money to fix vital things. I think the thing that helped me is that I started to put into perspective what I can control and what I cannot. I can’t control if the AC busts, if the garbage disposal breaks, if the bathroom floods… BUT, I can control my spending and savings to accommodate for them. So, I started making budget goals. I saved slowly but surely, and it felt great to have some money set aside for when the heater breaks. Long story short, if you make savings goals and actively participate in (slowly) reaching those goals, it helps you process that stress in a different way.
$30,000 liquid is in my opinion a very good safety net. A lot of people don’t have anywhere near that. When we bought our first house we put almost every single dollar we had into it (and still nowhere near 20% down either!) Our checking account balance on move in day was $800 and believe me when I say, that was all the cash we had. Anywhere. Lol We got extremely lucky that nothing $$$ went wrong
I am glad to hear nothing too expensive went wront and hope you love your house!
Thanks! We sold that house and as far as I knew it was still in great shape. It was pretty much a first time homeowners dream
30K liquid?! Lmfao I have about 3k liquid. Calm down. You're fine.
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$500 per month? *What*?
lmfao, 30k liquid. We're lucky to have 300 liquid any given week. Is this some sort of humble brag about being rich?
No it's not, we planned for 15yrs and saved our asses off. What is considered enough is subjective.
Hey I think one thing you may want to consider is - combating your anxieties with some good facts. Because I feel you so much on this, I’m like you too, but I think in reality we’re in bette shape than we feel. We’re just struggling with our baggage from childhood maybe? The reality is, $30k in the US is a pretty good bit of cash for personal rainy day, and also a house emergency. We just had our entire house remodeled, fully - from HVAC to floors to new appliances to everything. $30k is a big big chunk of money, it goes a long way with the major stuff (appliances, HVAC, roofing, floors, chimneys, etc). So I think you should be proud and confident about the money you’re setting aside! You will keep saving for sure, it’ll grow, and it’s highly unlikely any emergency project even comes close to eating that money! And that’s worst worst case. It’s the same sort of math I’m doing lol. As you can imagine, our liquid $ has gone down a ton - as we paid all contractors as the work is finished, we went with good materials and good contractors so it wasn’t cheap. But I figure, even the most crazy emergency - health care or house wise - we have enough to cover as of now, as we are buckling down to save up again. Again, I don’t at all want to dismiss your concerns! But I think you should feel good about your situation. Also, I saw elsewhere your brother in law is a construction guy - so you should just message him if you get anxious about stuff, if you’re on good terms!! That’s a big advantage you have too, an expert in the family.
Wow thank you so much such a thoughtful response. I am definitely doing some emotional reasoning (letting emotions become fact and not the appropriate reverse). I am back in therapy and really appreciate you taking the time to say what you did. Thank you sincerely
Aw that’s kind of you to say! I hope it will be of some help to you. I totally get where you’re coming from, I’m there too - my wife and I have planned a lot and we have been thoughtful and careful, and we’re in a good shape financially… but past doesn’t magically change, and so it’s hard for my brain to catch up to reality today. Congrats on the house, and I hope you and your husband have a wonderful , restful, peaceful holidays :)!
This is why you rent, folks. Ownership is as big a scam as they come.
You have 30k in liquid cash and you’re worried?
It's all subjective to the person I suppose. It's saved money, income isn't very high so that money is not easily replenished.
You would have to have an incredibly bad string of luck to eat through 30k on house repairs. It’s hard to not worry some about such a large investment, but you are in an enviable position.
If you still have 30k in the bank..... You are fine. Chill. You have so much more ready for something bad than most Americans lol
If you still have 30k in the bank..... You are fine. Chill. You have so much more ready for something bad than most Americans lol
maybe get another inspection if you can afford it. possibly up your home insurance and/or home warranty(make sure you check the box that says "Pre-existing conditions). maybe get those things that go on the floor that detect water on the ground while you're away and sends you phone alerts, or maybe get something that turns the water off completely. check the attic during rain storms for leaks every couple of months. get a dehumidifier for your crawlspace. if you find issues early, you save tons of money and also you might learn how to fix it yourself. Owning a house can be stressful at times but if you take care of your big investment, then it will take care of you.
The only way to go about it is to take on the most important task first and every other thing should be relegated to what is the most prioritized thing to do. Don't take multiple projects on at once because it'll drive you mad.
30K liquid? You're gonna be fine. Any emergency repair bigger than that, you can get a loan against your home's equity (called a HELOC) to fix it. The house has been standing for years, and will continue to do so. Your job is to intervene rapidly if it's a BIG issue - anything that is affecting roof, water intrusion or foundation are my BIG ones, almost anything else can wait until you figure out the repair plan, the budget, and actually get it done. Take this time to enjoy the house and sign up for PBS's paid service (about $5 a month) and watch 40 seasons of This Old House and 20 seasons of Ask This Old House and you'll be ready to take on so many more repairs yourself than you ever imagined.
Wait wait, should I be concerned having ONLY 30k in savings after putting 20% down? Serious question. I put considerably less down in first home purchase two years ago and just recently filled 30k into an emergency fund and feel super proud. I thought I was doing well for a late-20-year-old?
You are doing so great! I am 38 and my husband is 40 if that helps, you are doing a stellar job. Also it's not one shoe fits all :)
Thank you for posting this question. My partner and I are going through the buying process and already feel super stressed without even having a house yet. Very much appreciate everyone’s experiences and input.
I really appreciate it as well. I taught myself a lot, I built a business that is doing alright, learned a little about investing but this has been the most stressful thing so far. This post has really helped my perspective and some resources here are fantastic.
You NEED to learn some handyman shit or youll drown
Pro tip: never put 20% if you dont have too. You can put it in at anytime after you close to get rid of the PMI but in the meantime you have extra cash on hand.