Home ownership may seem like a simple alternative to renting, but don’t be fooled. Owning a home comes with all kinds of little hidden costs. If you have a nest egg and you can afford to replace a fridge, remove harmful mold or maintain sewer and drain cleaning, home ownership may be for you. If you aren’t sure, check out this guide to the unforeseen costs of home ownership.
What’s Hiding in the Walls
If you’ve ever watched a home renovation show on HGTV, you know that problems await inside a home’s walls. Somethings, it’s a faulty, leaking pipe. Plumbing leak detection can climb into the thousands of dollars. Sometimes, it’s asbestos from your home’s former life. Asbestos removal requires a team of experts and can also be very costly. When purchasing a home, pay close attention the time period in which it was made to indicate what kinds of materials were likely used and what problems you can try to foresee.
You Can’t Call the Landlord When the Toilet Clogs
Convenience is a huge amenity that you lose when you go from renting to owning. Toilet tank leaking becomes your problem and if you have a septic tank and are wondering how a septic tank works then you’d better get to Googling. Whether you have regular plumbing or a septic sewer system, it’s bound to give you problems at some point. According to Home Advisor, it costs an average of $353 to hire a plumber, $248 to repair a clogged drain, and more than $500 to install or repair a hot water heater. Not to mention, sewer and drain cleaning are regular maintenance items to work into your budget. If you can’t absorb these costs, renting might be a more fiscally responsible option.
All the Extras
Once you become a home owner, there are a whole host of other things you have to think about. For example, many people who are invested in green energy and environmentally friendly practices never worry about integrating that stuff into their rental unit. However, once you own a home, it makes sense to bring it up to the standards of your values. Upgrades like water saving toilets or solar panels are a great way to do that. However, those upgrades don’t come free. Home owners might also feel more inclined to spend money on updating features, painting walls and maintaining the landscape. These are all little extras that never enter a renter’s realm.
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