Reddit, I just bought my first house! Tell me some things I should know about being a homeowner.

PurpleCarrot · 1 year

NEVER fertilize your grass, it just makes it grow faster. I am serious.

diggbots · 1 year

This is something that my father and his father did when moving into their homes. I'm not sure if this applies in your situation but it works well if you have young children.

They actually threw a party and had cake and ice cream for the neighborhood kids/adults.

This way the kids in the neighborhood would remember that you are a pretty nice person and not fuck around with your house or steal shit.
If you have children it allows your kids to be accepted into the group with the rest of the neighborhood kids.

Another thing was when it came to Halloween. My parents did this when we were young. If you have cash to spare, I would suggest buying full sized chocolate bars at Halloween. Snickers, O'Henrys, Rices Pieces, Mr. Bigs, Crunch. My parents do this and something I will continue to do. It will probably run you 150+ bucks but as a result we were always 'that house' to go to. Sure it costs a bit more but the kids and parents especially remember your house. It gives the kids in the neighborhood something to look forward to and as a result our home was never screwed around with.

davejr · 1 year

Paint something. Its a way of marking your territory. If it doesn't work out, you just paint back over it.

Floyd5 · 1 year

Don't forget to change your furnace filters.

camopdude · 1 year

Yell at the neighbor kids to get off your lawn.

SauceOverflow · 1 year

buy an alarm system.

Lowers your insurance and it's piece of mind when you're away.

mattgrande · 1 year

If you're having a housewarming party, invite your neighbours.
Your first trip to the grocery store will be hella expensive.
Get ready to have a lot more work!

fredbnh · 1 year

Keep ahead of any maintenance/repair that might be needed. It will save you a lot of money in the long run.

KPexEA · 1 year

Find where the water and gas shutoffs are.

Buy a fire extinguisher and put it in the kitchen.

Get insurance.

If your bank will allow you to, try and increase your payments slowly as you go, you won't notice it nearly as much as you think and you can save thousands of dollars.

subsection1e · 1 year

The average annual real return of residential real estate is 1-2% [1][2].

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB124336746233955539.html

[2] http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/102526/Will_You_Live_Off_Your_House

0dp · 1 year

Increase your emergency fund. A water heater can corrode and leak, furnace or a/c can take a dump. You don't get to whine to a landlord anymore, you just gotta deal with it.

When I bought my house, one of the first things I did was rip out all of the carpet upstairs. Carpet is nasty stuff IMO. Put in hardwood or laminate or tile. You can buy giant floor mats for your living room if you want that carpet feeling.

tuxedodiplomat · 1 year

The law of renovation: Cost for renovating your house will be roughly double what you anticipate, even after factoring in the law of renovation.

momster · 1 year

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.

Tface · 1 year

Congrats!

Change the locks.

Get home owners insurance and aim for a $1000 deductible. Any lower than that is wasted money.

Keep a flashlight near your fuse box.

Smoke detectors on every level and test them when you change your clocks (2x/year).

Take video of your expensive possessions (including serial numbers) and save a copy in a safe deposit box - if you ever need to report a loss, you'll have evidence of your stuff.

(Can you tell I work for an insurance company)?

Al_Bundy · 1 year

Tell everyone how housing is such a great investment but conveniently forget to include interest, closing costs, home insurance, etc (because then you're pretty much negative the cost of your house if you take the full 30 years to pay it off). Be sure to smile and wave like the enzyte guy to make everyone who sees you think owning a home will be all flowers and smiles too. Enjoy the American dream, bitch.

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login