What Are the Average Home Repair Costs?

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home repair costs

Owning your own home can be personally rewarding and financially savvy. But it also comes with a lot of responsibility. It is up to you to ensure that your home is maintained. If you don’t address an issue, it doesn’t get fixed.

For this reason, home repair costs can feel overwhelming. But planning ahead for these expenses is the best way to handle them. Here are a few planning tips that can help you budget for home repairs.

General Factors

Although each home is unique, there are a few general things that will determine the range of home repair costs you can anticipate. These include:

  • Age of your home
  • Current home condition
  • Location/landscape

Homes that are less than ten years old will most likely need less maintenance than older ones. This goes for everything from appliances to the building structure itself.

Your current home condition is another factor. If you are a bit ‘behind the eight ball’ in terms of maintenance, you may need to invest more at the outset to get your home and property up to standards.

Where your home is located is a final variable. If you live in an area that experiences more severe weather, you can expect more wear and tear on your roof. If your property is prone to flooding, keeping water out of crawl spaces or repairing existing water damage will impact your budget.

Types of Home Repair Costs

It may be helpful to think of home projects in terms of maintenance and major repairs. Both are important but categorizing projects in this way will help in budgeting for them.

Maintenance

Home maintenance includes things like:

  • Lawn care
  • Pressure washing siding, decks, or patios
  • Gutter cleaning
  • Replacing HVAC air filters
  • Septic inspection
  • Pest control

These are projects that you can budget for on a regular basis. One reason not to put off these minor maintenance chores is that you want to keep your home comfortable and great looking while you’re living there. And many of these projects, like having your gutters cleaned, are inextricably linked to avoiding damage and major repairs down the road.

While you may be able to mitigate many major home repairs through maintenance, if you live in a home long enough, things will eventually break down. Major home repairs include:

  • Electrical systems
  • Plumbing
  • HVAC systems
  • Roofing
  • Paint needs
  • Appliances

This is not an exhaustive list. There may be other projects that do not need immediate attention but are more serious than regular maintenance. For instance, having a cracked or crumbling driveway isn’t dire but may fall into the category of a costly repair that needs to be done at some point.

If you plan to sell your house one day, both repairs and maintenance can go a long way to maximizing your return on investment (ROI). You don’t want to find yourself thinking “I’ve got to sell my house fast” but have a long list of needed repairs. And, if you put your house on the market, you’d be limiting yourself to buyers that have the capital to make these necessary repairs.

Planning Is Key

Home repair costs are a necessary part of being a homeowner and are manageable with a little bit of thought and planning. Paying a bit more on a regular basis to maintain your home will save you money down the road.

Many home repair contractors offer free quotes for projects – take advantage of this. Getting an estimate on what a project will cost can help alleviate the stress of planning.

Take advantage of the information above to help formulate a plan for maintaining your home. And be sure to check out our other posts on fashion, beauty, travel, and other lifestyle topics.

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