Buying a House

Zen

With the exception of brief forays into condo ownerships, I have always rented, and always lived in apartments. So with regard to buying a house, I need some input on what to expect in terms of associated expenses. I know the basics (phone, cable, internet, water, taxes, HOA fees, and lawn care). But what else goes with a house and how much does it run?

Chrysanthemum

Pest control, we pay for quarterly treatment and it is about $110/ treatment.

I HIGHLY suggest a warranty like American Home Shield, ours is about $550/yr and if any appliances or the furnace or plumbing or anything breaks we pay a $75 service call and it is repaired or replaced. They have fixed our plumbing including replacing the toilet, garage door fixed, had the furnace replaced and the a/c fixed. I think it is worth it.

Also you didn't include insurence and depending on where you are flood insurence, and if you don't put 20% down pmi.

Shanny

Oh boy - where to begin? The biggest things are home owners insurance (and yes you need pmi as PP mentioned if you don't put down 20%), down payment and taxes. A home warranty as PP also mentioned is a MUST and you would get that paid for the first year by the seller but need to renew it yearly after that and the co pay generally goes up after the first year. A huge initial expense in going from a 2 bdrm apartment to a 4 bdrm, 2 living area, dining room house was furniture - especially rugs - all of my aprtments were carpeted and my whole house is hardwoods! There were also a lot of initial expenses - turning on the alarm system (and I paid for a year upfront to get a month free), changing all of the locks, window and gutter cleaning, having the house cleaned, moving expenses. My electric bill at my old apartment was never more than $50 a month and I had no gas. Now my electric can run a few hundred dollars in the summer (and I keep my house pretty warm!). I did without pest control this year and have had less problems than I did last year so that is definitely optional. Water, trash and recycling are all together in my area and run about $75/month in the summer but I have a large lawn and a pool. My pool costs about $100/month to maintain. Some things happen are bound to happen that you just can't account for beforehand. I needed a new hot water heater...covered under home warranty - yeah! Code upgrades for a house built in the 60's? NOT covered. Cost me almost 1000 just for the upgrades. Rats in the attack? Another 900, plus I just paid another 200 to extend the guaranty on that! I could go on and on but you get the point. Whatever you think your monthly bills will, double it and if you can swing that - great because that extra money will cover all of the unknowns that happen to every home owner (and year one seems to be the worst!)

mel

During my first year of home ownership, we replaced the AC unit. $7000, ouch!

The others have given great advice. I completely agree!

My biggest advice is not to have triplets right after moving into a new house. You will have NO money and things will be extremely tight until they start school. I don't think you'll have that problem, though!

Zen

I'm making a list: home owner's insurance, service plan, no triplets!

tc0104

We needed to put up a fence right away for our pets, enclosed play area for laney and privacy. That cost us $4000 & that was the cheapest quote from a co with a good reputation...the highest quote was $7500. We also had to put a new roof on our other house that we own within a month of the fence, another $4000 thankfully that house is half the size of our new house. Also, our house was a foreclosure and thankfully Wells Fargo painted, put new carpet and appliances in...Had they not done that, add in those expenses. We looked at many houses foreclosures and short sales that all of that would have been needed. We also put in a new lawn and did most of the labor ourselves. We had to it was horrible plus our hoa was going to fine us $1000 if we didnt, even though we just bought the house. Our house also had no blinds up, so new blinds for our 4/3 house.

To add to what mel said, conceiving twins 4.5 months after buying a house is also probably not a good idea.

Shaeley Mae

I bought a new townhouse, and even after mortgage, PMI, insurance, taxes, and HOA, I'm still paying less than rent. As well, we have a community pool and gated community. Inlcuded in my HOA is every aspect of lawn care and landscaping care, the pool, trash, etc. So, from my perspective, it was a total no-brainer. Especially considering that everything is new and under warranty.

Additional fees ....... eh ..... I think my in-wall termite treatment/prevention is $120/year. In-wall pest control would probably be about $100/quarter, but I have yet to need it.

For me ..... the only added expenses have been internal decorating and air filters. Starting in January I'll also have to invest in batteries for the smoke detectors, and perhaps a few lightbulbs.

babymakes3

We bought almost 2 years ago. we had to pay for a termite tenting thing. Which was 2000 bucks. ALSO pay for the home inspection 400 bucks before u move in, most loaner require it but u pay for it. AHS is our home insurance. Every appliance has needed to be fixed or replaced,so it was well worth the 550 a yr and 60 bucks for the service call.

Oh and you can buy points to get a lower interest rate sooooooo worth it

pb

We built and don't have many costs many have talked about but the taxes are awful. I mean crazy. Homeowners is not bad It is a pain to have to replace big ticket items when they ALWAYS break at the worst times. Yard work is also expensive to have done (at least in CT) and a pain to feel obligated to do. Still I much rather own than rent if it's possible. If you can build you get a lot of benefits that C&A talked about PMI sucks. I have never paid it but I know it's very expensive. If you have great credit this is a great time to buy. Oh and flood insurance. Maybe Florida is different but it's expensive in CT. Our house now doesn't require it but our old house did. In CT you only need it in certain places. Good luck

Kari

Lawn care (or buying a mower, gas, oil changes, blade sharpening, and daycare for the kids while you mow), outdoor landscaping (I built a deck, planted trees and flowers), furnace cleaning, and my new house needed many plumbing repairs for the first four years because the subcontracter sucked and everything he did had to be redone. Taxes were a big surprise. They've gone up about 35% over the past few years. I'm up north so I also pay for plowing. I live on a private dirt road so we all pay to maintain it. Lots of odd little expenses that do add up like wasp nest removal ($400) or renting a storage unit so you can pack over time and not all in a weekend.

A&J

Yep, I agree with what has been mentioned by others, but I will also say we have experienced things very much like Shaeley Mae--- our expenses month to month are lower than they were when we were renting. So far nothing major has happened or NEEDED to be replaced. We have made many changes, improvements, and upgrades, but at our choosing and convenience-- THANKFULLY. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have said all of this, jinxing myself;-)

KTZ

As others have said, Taxes have been a pretty big pill to swallow. Other than that home-ownership is about knowing that there will always be something, like a new paint job, or water heater, or whatever. There is always something that could be improved. SO I think its good to just put a little bit of every pay check aside for those things and when you spend it, start over.

Shanny

band aids. I've become such a do-it-yourselfer I go through a lot of band aids these days!

My taxes went up thousands of dollars this year. I don't know how it is in other areas but here you'll get re appraised the year you buy. The previous owners had done a lot of improvements and now I am both enjoying them and paying for them in one way or another! I knew it was coming but it was a bigger jump than I thought it was going to be.

old mama

I didn't see other utilities listed like electricity and gas...for us our gas company offers a service plan that will pay for appliance and AC and furnace repair...it is so well worth the money...and one call to get someone out to do repairs and they don't charge for parts.