Often, when first-time home buyers consider buying a home they do not think long-term about home improvement or keeping up their home over the years when it comes to painting their home, replacing their roof, and even upgrading the appliances. This is because they do not want to think about the expense of owning their own home long-term, the main reason some people buy a home is to keep up with their friends or prove that they are as good as their friends. When you buy a brand-new home you may not have to worry about home improvement immediately, but you should consider upkeep as part of your expenses since you need to paint your home at least once every three years. Remember, you have no idea when you will have to replace your refrigerator, your bathroom fixtures, or even in your water heater. The problem is that many first-time home buyers do not always think about the upkeep of their home or home improvement on the long term.
An acquaintance of mine who purchased a home but was not willing to spend the money to keep up her home. Instead of hiring a professional painter to paint her home when the walls needed to be repainted she brought in friends and they did a poor job. Since she wore a brand-new home and no one told her she needed to replace the roof after 20 years, she just had a repair man patch it until she could not patch it anymore. Therefore, instead of replacing her roof when she had leaks in her roof, she only called a repair man to fix it. This went on for three years until the patch up job did not prevent the rain from coming into her roof. She has owned her home for 23 years, but her response was-- no one told me I had to repair a roof. The thing is if you own your home you should know for yourself that a home means making many repairs on a yearly basis-- to keep your home up to par. Because the roof was not repaired in a timely fashion the rain leaked into the walls, which allowed mildew to grow inside the walls. The only way to solve this problem and get rid of the mildew is to take down the walls and replace them, but she will not want to pay for this added expense.
When you purchase an old home that needs a lot of repair you also have to consider that part of your expense when purchasing a home. Currently we are in a deep recession as far as property is concerned and you find people purchasing undervalued property as an investment, but also refuse to include the repairs as part of the expense of the purchase of the home and refused to upgrade the home after they purchase it as they only want to hold on to it as an investment and resell it when the economy gets better so they can make money off of the property.
When replacing a roof today, there are many types of roofs to consider, such as do you want shale, slate, or a just a tar roof. You should also consider how many years you want the roof to last. When purchasing a roof you should also have to consider what kind of weather or climate you live in, this becomes an important aspect of what kind of roof you put on your home and how many years you expect it to last once it is put on.. You need to consider a roof that will withstand extreme heat, hurricanes, ice storms, and possibly even snow depending on what part of the country you live in.
Home improvement needs to be considered as part of your expense in upkeep of your home when you plan to purchase a home. It is not just a one time deal, it is something you have to do yearly basis. When people think about owning a home they only think about the investment value increasing over the years and what they will make when they sell the home. They forget that while they own the home they're expense is not just their phone line and their electricity, but also insurance on the home and taxes on the home. When you originally purchased the home you pay taxes on the current value of the home, but over time as the property value goes up, your taxes also go well on the home.
One of the reasons that we your so many foreclosures on property today, is because first-time homebuyers are not including all of these items as part of the expenses they have. Therefore, when they purchase a home they are considering only the mortgage payment and the current expenses; but when they are considering the purchase they should also think about the fact that their income may not increase, but their expenses will certainly increase especially if the mortgage is on a variable scale and not a fixed price, the utilities can increase over time, your taxes can increase over time, etc.
When you consider all of these expenses that you pay over time, that unless you plan to include home improvement into your expenses, then maybe becoming a homeowner is not for you!
