Budget to Keep Your Home Great
Buying a home is an exciting time. It is also a great time to analyze your current spending and whether you need to make some adjustments when you close on your new home. There are automatically some bills that will be different when you move.
Monthly bills that will change when you move:
- Your monthly mortgage or rent payment changes with homebuying. I guess it’s obvious that rent will change when you buy a home, but it is still important to look at the payment difference including taxes and insurance. Figure out whether it will affect your spending habits. Also, keep in mind, whether you pay your taxes and insurance through your mortgage escrow or separately, taxes and insurance may increase each year. You are still ultimately responsible to pay the correct amount.
- Your heating bills. Even if you are not moving into a different weather zone, different homes require different heating. New homes are often more energy efficient, unless older homes have been re-insulated. Check with your utility company for winter average heating bills to add into your updated budget.
- Your electric bill. There are several factors that affect the changes to the electric bill, whether appliances run on gas or electricity, and amount of shade at the new house vs. what it takes to cool the entire home. Electric is another bill to refer to your utility company for an average bill. Just remember, different people use different amounts of electricity.
- Home maintenance. Professionals disagree on this one, and there are several factors that will affect this number. If your home is in medium to good shape, it makes good sense to yearly save 2-3% of your home purchase price to cover repairs. If your home was purchased as is, with needed immediate repairs, obviously you will need to aside a higher figure plus the funds for the repairs you already know you must make. Homes require maintenance. Get your own copy of a sample home maintenance checklist.
Budgeting for changes in payments or maintenance won’t ruin your new home adventure. Budgeting helps keep your home great, while the home ownership adventure continues. Find more blogs about homebuying at https://blog.resourceshark.com/mortgage-blog/