The Importance of Maintaining Your Home

Owning a home comes with a lot more obligations than renting. The landlord is not there to help; the owner is in charge of resolving any problems that may occur. This suggests that the upkeep of a tidy home is the responsibility of the homeowner. Your realtor, your mortgage lender, and internet users have all stressed to you how important it is to maintain your home, and there are a number of ways to do it. But why is it so important? As a supplier of home warranties, Landmark’s main objective is to support homeowners whose systems and appliances malfunction as a result of aging or normal wear and tear. However, according to our contract, neglect-caused system or appliance failure is not considered “normal wear and tear.”1. Although it’s a fantastic incentive to keep up with property maintenance, you shouldn’t rely only on the benefits of a home warranty. There are several justifications for why housekeeping is important.

Home maintenance can help you save money.

First and foremost, as a homeowner, maintaining your property makes financial sense. “That can’t be right,” you say to yourself, “I spend a lot of time, money, and energy on maintenance and cleaning.” How can I accomplish that and save money?

While cash, dedication, and personnel are necessary for maintenance, the overall cost savings are far higher than in the event that maintenance is skipped. Why does this happen? Your Money: According to the Missing Manual, every dollar you spend on routine home maintenance saves you around $100 in future problems. This will prevent minor problems, like a dirty filter or clogged drain, from getting worse over time and developing into larger ones, like a burst pipe or a burned-out HVAC motor. Replacing the furnace filter approximately once a month is significantly less expensive than worse problems that might occur from ignoring house upkeep.

Keeping Up with Maintenance Keeps Your House Running Well

The worst thing about it is that maintenance is all that it is: upkeep. Updating the functioning elements of your home necessitates frequent and frequent duty completion. It is comparable to constantly sweeping the kitchen floor, which has to be done once a week to keep it clean. If you hadn’t, just think of the state of the floor! Now think about how often you clean the dishwasher filter or unclog the bathroom drain. Isn’t that right—probably not as often as you clean the floor? On the other hand, you probably use them almost as much as the floor.

Just like your floor has to be swept frequently, the other parts of your house also require regular cleaning and upkeep to be functional. If you don’t, your house will run less efficiently. If the furnace filter isn’t cleaned, your HVAC system will use more gas or electricity to heat or cool the air in your home. The evaporative coils beneath your refrigerator need to be cleaned; otherwise, it will have to work harder and use more energy to keep your food cool. By keeping up with maintenance, you may save money and reduce your utility expenditures since your home will run more effectively.

Caring for Your House Increases Its Value

As soon as you drive a new car off the lot, it becomes less valuable. An car loses value in the secondary market the more you drive and the older it becomes. This concept does not hold true for a house. The longer you own your home, the more likely it is that you will be able to increase its value. Naturally, the market affects property values more than your own improvements, but with the right maintenance, you may still have a direct influence on its value.

How does one approach such a task? If you wanted to market your property for sale tomorrow and you hadn’t maintained any of your appliances or systems, the home inspection report would probably show you that it had a number of problems or potential problems. Buyers may ask for a reduced price or ask you to repair or fix any systems that might give them difficulties in the future, depending on the potential problems your property may have. The proceeds from the sale of the house will, in either scenario, fall short of what it would be worth.

However, the home inspector would likely find fewer issues that you would need to correct during the inspection and you would likely receive a higher sale price if you had adhered to the maintenance instructions supplied by the manufacturer for your systems and appliances. Click this link to learn more about home improvement improvements that add the most value to your property.

Naturally, the more do-it-yourself home maintenance and repairs you perform to increase the value of your property, the more equity you ultimately have in it. For an understanding of home equity, see our page here.

Home Upkeep and Guarantees

Most of the time, home warranties and insurance do not cover breakdowns caused by inadequate maintenance. It would be challenging to locate a home insurance company that would cover flooding in your attic or roof if it turned out that your failure to remove your gutters caused the flood. This also applies to home warranties: your guarantee definitely wouldn’t pay for repairs or replacement if the fan in your HVAC system burnt out from overuse and you didn’t clean the filters for a year. Why does having a home warranty need system and appliance maintenance? You must do maintenance on your appliances and systems to keep them in top working condition and to lengthen their lifespan. Most home warranty companies only replace or repair appliances and systems in cases when the homeowner has taken the necessary maintenance steps.

One of the best things about having a home warranty is that, if you take proper care of your systems and appliances as they age, you might be able to save thousands of dollars when they break down. Under a home warranty, your old systems can be fixed or replaced for a fixed service call fee.