4 mistakes new home owners make and what you can do to avoid them

Being a new home-owner can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be scary. As an inspection company, we are here to empower and educate you to make the right decisions when buying your first humble abode. Part of making confident, educated decisions is knowing what not to do. Take a look at these top mistakes new home-owners make so you won’t repeat them:
  1.  Ignoring Routine Maintenance
    This is something you likely have not had to think about before, but routine maintenance is very important to the overall upkeep and safety of your new house. If you were living in someone else’s house or in an apartment before, you’ve never had to sweat the small stuff. But now that you’re a home-owner (or going to be soon), you’ll want to consider doing tasks for home maintenance. These tasks include things like cleaning your gutters, power-washing the siding, repainting your back porch and inspecting it for cracks, preparing the pipes for the cold Ohio winter, and reseeding your lawn for spring. You can set yourself calendar reminders quarterly or seasonally to ensure you don’t forget! Also, feel free to check out this checklist courtesy of nytimes.com for a more comprehensive list of maintenance tasks. 

  2. Making big renovations as soon as you move in
    According to coldwellbanker.com, a lot of people who just bought their first house start making major renovations immediately. After all, moving in is exciting and you’ll want to make the home feel truly “yours” as soon as possible. But renovating right away may not be as good an idea as you think. Here’s why:

    Small changes are likely to occur, or some things may come up after you’ve lived in the home for the first few months. What if right when you move in, you tear down the bathroom and put in a brand new bathtub, marble countertops, sleek tiles, brass-finish faucets, and trendy 12-inch “rainfall” shower head? It may be a cool renovation, but what if within the next few weeks, you realize the water pressure in the shower is lower than you’d like? And you discover that it’s because there is serious mineral accumulation in your pipes. This means you’d have to go in and replace the piping, which means your fresh renovations you just finished will have to be torn into. If you had waited a few weeks or a month before renovating, you could have fixed the piping problem while you were renovating, which would have saved you time and money in the long run.Give yourself time to live in the home before making big renovation decisions.

    Why not wait until you’ve lived there for a little while, so you can get acquainted with the quirks of the house? You wouldn’t know that the extra inch that the fridge juts out of the wall would really bother you until you’ve stubbed your toe on it a few too many times over the first month of living there. Same as not knowing about the weak water pressure in the shower. Don’t ignore the small maintenance details of course, but give it a bit of time before making huge renovations.

  3. Buying all new furniture
    A new house calls for new stuff, right? Mmm… maybe not. 

    While buying all new stuff sounds great, it may not be necessary. First of all, when you just put a down payment on a house, your budget for other things may be tight. Homes, as you know, are not inexpensive. It may benefit you to buy your furniture from a secondhand store or “used” on Amazon. Send out a post on Facebook asking your friends and family if they’re giving any furniture away, and offer to take it off their hands for them. Or check out Facebook mARKetplace. A lot of people will give couches, chairs, tables, and more away for free, if not for a much cheaper price than buying it new. And the condition may be close to new! Another idea is driving around your neighborhood for furniture people leave out on their curb at the end of the driveway. Depending on your area, you may find some cool treasures! I once found a bookcase on a curb in my neighborhood, and it was like new. It had very minimal cracks and hardly any paint chips. I saved at least $100 on a new bookshelf just by being on the lookout while driving around.You can save yourself a ton of moolah in the long run if you take your time and do a bit of research before buying all new furniture.

  4. Storing your home goods and furniture in the wrong places

    Photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/user/thenewyorker1/


    Once you move in, you might realize you have more stuff than you thought. Or maybe you can’t find places to put some of your furniture or home goods. This is normal, of course, as it’s hard to have a grasp on how big or little your new space truly is and how your things will fit. A big mistake new home-owners make, though, is putting their extra stuff in the attic or garage. The problem with storing it in the attic is some attic trusses cannot support the extra weight besides the weight of the roof and ceiling. That extra weight of the goods or furniture could cause the attic to sag or even collapse. The same goes for garages with pull-down trusses. The storage area is not built to support a lot of extra weight. No one wants to pay for unexpected damages in their home, especially if they are avoidable.

    Try storing your goods elsewhere in the house, like your basement. You could also invest in a storage space. The monthly fees don’t cost much compared to the damages that could occur in your attic or garage. Research store units near you. It’s worth the investment. 

We are here to help you be as educated as possible about your new home. When you’re educated, you’re confident! And when you’re confident you can make the best decisions about your new space. Remember, it doesn’t have to be scary, it can be an exciting experience. Happy home-owning!

Justin Jurovcik

Justin Jurovcik

Home Inspector & Fireman
Owner: ARK Home Inspection

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