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Know the Costs of Maintaining Your Home

06 November 2018

Digital Home Management

What if your water heater breaks down and you're sure you replaced it a couple of years ago but maybe it was 10 years ago? And what about the warranty?

Or what if you're putting your house on the market, and a potential buyer asks how old your air conditioner is, but you don't really know? Or maybe you want to upgrade your home insurance policy, but you're unsure of what the replacement cost for your house would be?

Like many homeowners, you can rummage through a file drawer of old papers to find out some of the answers, but you wish you had better records. You can't really manage to get organized and you'd like to have a fresh start. What you want is to maintain your house and keep track of its current value. You also want to know what it costs you month-by-month to own that house and maintain it. That way you can anticipate upcoming maintenance costs and improvement projects.

That data can help you decide some day when to sell the house and what the price should be. This will help you better estimate what someone will pay for the house and how much money you would have available to move up in the real estate market. Knowing your home's value can also tell you what an insurance company would pay for restoration or repairs in an emergency and can help you understand what your property taxes are.

If you are looking for better home management, look no further. HomeZada is an online, digital home management program with a "vision to provide the homeowner a valuable tool to manage their home and the assets and possessions in it. We believe that a home is still one of your most valuable assets in your life, and that our system can help people maintain and improve the value of this asset" according to their website.

HomeZada and Rosie on the House have partnered together to provide Arizona homeowners the best of both worlds. Here are questions that you might want answered, according to HomeZada:

1 | What will it cost to maintain your house?

Rosie on the House Caulking Windows You're probably already aware of what you pay for your mortgage, property taxes and insurance, but your budget also has to include the cost of "managing" maintenance for your house.

That can mean things like checkups for your air conditioner, repairs for the water heater and water softener, mending broken plumbing pipes and fixtures, and fixing roof leaks. Maintenance could also include repainting your home or replacing a major appliance. A digital record can help you keep specific repairs under control from month to month.

"Annual maintenance can total between one percent and four percent of your home's value, depending on the age of the home," according to Elizabeth Dodson, co-founder of HomeZada. "The older the home, the more maintenance that might be likely."

2 | What will it cost to renovate your house?

Kitchen Waiting For Things To Go In Maybe you need to do more than fix and repair the old stuff; maybe you have to redo an entire room. Or maybe you bought a fixer-upper with the idea that you will gradually redo the entire house.

Dodson says HomeZada has project templates to help homeowners estimate what the labor and cost can be for major replacements and renovations. For a bathroom remodel, the program can help you add up all the different features you want redone and what they might cost. Then you can start budgeting for what you want to do to your home before you even talk to contractors. As you go through the list of fixes, you can check them off when they're done and compare what you really spent to your original estimates.

3 | What will it cost to replace your house?

By taking an inventory of your house and what each room contains, you can put together actual values on rooms. That can be important in filing claims in case of a fire or some other accident. It can also be a great help in knowing how much insurance to buy. Is the policy big enough to recoup the value of your home? Do you have special possessions like antiques or artwork that need to be added to your policy?

4 | How should you price your house when it sells?

Rosie on the House mortgage

Having good records about maintenance and renovation you've done could help you in the eventual sale of your house. What you have spent on repairs and remodeling can also make your home a more attractive buy. Your records on the home itself can be passed along to the home buyer and eventually help them know when it's time to replace a water heater or an air conditioner, for example.

5 | How much equity do you have in your house?

Keeping track of payments on your mortgage can help you assess your net worth and what kind of a house you want to buy should you decide to move.

For more information, you'll want to check out HomeZada at rosieonthehouse.com/app. A free version is available or sign up for the premium version for $7.95 a month or $59 a year. Tracking the details of your home is now a whole lot easier.

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Photo Credits:

Rosie on the House