Purchasing a house is one of the most memorable and special moments in your life. You’ve made an important investment to provide a loving home for you and your family. A place where memories will be made and shared for years to come. However, if you’re not prepared for the endeavor, it can easily end up being much more stressful, rather than exciting. We’ll be giving new homeowners some very helpful tips that will save you time, money and hopefully lots of frustration.
Clean Your Home From Top To Bottom
The first thing to do after you’ve purchased your home is to have it thoroughly cleaned. You can easily overlook this, but it’s important that you start your new adventure on a clean slate. Set aside a few days and plan out your cleaning strategy, room by room to ensure that your new home doesn’t have any smells or stains from the past residents.
Hiring out a professional cleaning service that specializes in move in cleanings may set you back a few hundred dollars but it’s well worth the cost. You want your new house’s bathrooms and living areas to be completely spotless. Vacuuming and steam cleaning the carpets, scrubbing bathrooms and getting into hard to reach places such as ceiling fans and behind appliances are where you’ll want to focus your efforts.
If there are any signs of a bug problem in your home, you’ll want to hire a pest control specialist as well. This will cost you up front, but can end up saving you lots of money and heartache down the road. The best policy with anything related to home maintenance, is to catch it early before it becomes expensive to fix.
Create A Home Maintenance Checklist
Once your new home is clean and ready for you to move in, you should create a home maintenance checklist. Catalog any and all items in the house that will need to be checked and maintained throughout the year. Items such as: yard maintenance, a cleaning schedule, hot water heater checks, ventilation filter checks, plumbing leaks, etc.. Here is a great home maintenance checklist that you can use to customize your own.
Once you have a complete list of items, sort them on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. This will allow you to schedule the items to a calendar and know exactly when anything needs to be checked. By using a schedule, you can easily allocate when the items in your list will be checked and who will be responsible for checking them. This has the added benefit of creating a sense of ownership and appreciation for you and your family.
Purchase Homeowners Insurance
Homeowners insurance is a must have for any new homeowners. Not only is it required by your mortgage lender, but it is essential for protecting your family from the unknown factors in life. Standard homeowners insurance will safeguard your home from a spectrum of threats. Hazards such as wind damage, fire damage, vandalism, tornadoes, hurricanes and hail storms are all covered by most policies. Homeowners insurance also covers things like theft or damage to your family’s personal belongings.
It will also protect your liability for anyone hurt while on your property. Family liability insurance, which is included as a standard on most homeowner insurance policies, will cover you if someone injured on your property files a lawsuit. This additional cost will save you tons of money down the road, if something happens that you and your family weren’t planning on. A homeowners insurance policy acts as a safety net for you, your loved ones and all of your personal belongings.
Replace All Locks To Your Home
Speaking of keeping your family’s belongings safe, the next tip for new homeowners is to replace all locks to your home. This is an often overlooked but very necessary step for your home’s safety. If your home isn’t brand new then you should assume that someone besides you, has keys to your front door. This could be the last resident’s dog walker, babysitter, old friend or any number of other people. Hire out a professional locksmith to change all of the exterior door locks so that you have peace of mind. This will ensure that you know exactly who has access to your home. If you’re a new homeowner, making sure you have secure locks on all of your doors is very important. Fast Keys can help you out with just this.
Install A Home Security System
After you have the locks changed out on your new home, you’ll want to set up a home security system. Luckily for new homeowners, we live in a time where purchasing a home security system has never been more affordable. There are some great options for home security systems that you can set up within minutes and even monitor your home from your smartphone. Using motion sensor security cameras will allow you to be notified whenever someone approaches your home. Even when you’re away, you can keep an eye on your home’s security. If a break in or vandalism does occur, then at the very least you will have evidence.
Introduce Yourself To Your Neighbors
The last item on our list has less to do with security or maintenance and more to do with creating a positive environment with the people you live around. Everyone should get to know their neighbors and make an attempt to participate in their community. These are the people that you are going to live around for years to come. Putting your best foot forward and becoming friendly with the neighborhood will benefit your family’s home life immensely.
Whether you or your new neighbors make the first move in an introduction, you can help foster a sense of reciprocity by asking them for a favor. Ever wonder why asking your neighbors for a cup of sugar became a common practice? This is known as the Benjamin Franklin Effect and it has a lot of use. By simply asking for a simple favor, you can kick start a positive relationship with your neighbors.
Becoming a new homeowner can be a daunting task filled with what seems like an endless checklist of to-dos. While they are all important, including these 6 tips into your list will help you in the short and long term. urchasing a home is a very meaningful step in life that is the launch pad for creating long lasting memories with loved ones. We hope you found this list of 6 tips for new homeowners helpful. We wish you the very best in your new adventure.
Let us know what tips you recommend yourself by commenting below.