Don’t you find it odd that so many people take better care of their cars than they do their homes? While maintaining your automobile is important, your home is far more valuable and an investment worth protecting.
Homes with what real estate experts call “deferred maintenance” sell for less than well-maintained homes. Sadly, most problems in the home don’t happen overnight but start out small and, neglected over time, reach the point where the price to repair them may be quite costly.
If a homeowner continues to defer maintenance, not only does the home lose value, but there may be health and safety issues as well.
Most home maintenance experts agree that regularly inspecting the home is the key to finding small problems before they swell into huge ones. Many, such as those at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, suggest performing some inspections, such as the roof, in the spring and others in early fall.
The most important home systems to maintain are the ones that cost the most to replace or repair. Roofing contractors suggest that you perform a routine roof inspection twice a year: at the beginning of spring and again in early fall. This may seem like a lot of time spent on just one aspect of the home, but when you consider that a new roof may cost you up to $15,000, it’s worth it to take the time to inspect it. While you’re up there, clean out the gutters and downspout to make sure that water is directed away from the home.
Some easy tasks that should be performed monthly include changing the air-conditioning filter and dropping a few ice cubes into the garbage disposer to clean the blades.
Ongoing maintenance chores include frequently checking sealants and caulking. Old, worn caulking can allow water into the walls and cause mold and dry rot.
While many repairs required to keep a home maintained require the services of a professional, the DIY enthusiast will be pleased to know that many of them are easy and inexpensive. Your friends at RealEstate.com want to help you in your DIY home maintenance endeavors. To that end, we’re rounding up all the specialists we can find to give you expert advice on how to perform some of the more popular home maintenance and repair tasks.
Leave a comment to let us know which topics you would like to see our DIY experts tackle.
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I completely agree. There are many things home owners can do themselves that might seem intimidating but are fairly simple. For example, draining the sediment from the water heater isn’t much more than hooking up a hose to the drain valve.