Owning a home involves some hard work and decision-making. Many homeowners with financial and knowledge uncertainties holding them back often need some help when choosing what to work on next in their home. That’s why we’ve prepared this guide—so that you can learn how to balance home improvement projects and home maintenance.
What’s the Difference?
Let’s be clear on what we are talking about here: by most definitions, home improvement involves changing your home according to your personal preferences, like renovating an old functional bathroom or kitchen or building a deck onto the back of your house. In contrast, many consider home maintenance to be the upkeep of your current property, which can include dirty jobs like cleaning out your gutters and checking your heating and cooling systems on a regular basis. In many cases, however, maintenance can quickly become home improvement. Let’s talk about how to balance these challenges as a homeowner while having a livable home and something left in your bank account.
What Should You Prioritize: Home Improvement or Home Maintenance?
For many homeowners, deciding between pursuing home improvement projects isn’t just a matter of cash in the bank. Unless you get lucky and win a big windfall from playing the lotto or casino games with a limited-time offer code, you’ll need a reasonable budget. A new homeowner also needs to carefully consider how usable their home will be during both home improvement and maintenance.
Our honest suggestion is to prioritize home maintenance first. We make this recommendation because maintaining your home lowers overall expenses in the long run. For example, if your home isn’t exceedingly tall, you could buy a ladder for a couple of hundred dollars along with a scoop and spend an hour or two cleaning the leaves out of your gutters yourself. This helps prevent wear and tear on your gutters and also keeps water flowing through freely, minimizing the chance of having any water damage from rain or snow.
Likewise, checking your furnace and air conditioner yourself or paying a professional company to complete the job is more a matter of having the time and, more importantly, the knowledge of what to look for. In reality, spraying down the exterior air conditioner unit so that your hardware can breathe takes just a few moments and a hose.
While both of these ideas sound reasonably cheap, many parts of your home need regular maintenance, including your appliances, windows, roof, and more. These do add up quickly, so insurance companies suggest spending 1-4% of your home’s value on maintenance per year.
What About Home Improvement?
We haven’t talked much about home improvement yet because there is plenty to say about maintenance! Let’s be real honest in saying that home improvement projects like renovating your kitchen, building a deck, or finishing a basement have the potential to both provide a satisfying result and add value to your home. Other projects like new insulation might be a necessity, but they can also lower your energy bills and look good in a for-sale listing.
Home improvements also tend to take much longer than home maintenance. Our suggestion here is to either start a home improvement project or hire a contractor when you are mentally prepared to go without a room, including your kitchen and bathroom, for at least a few days.
In order to avoid wasting your time and money, you should also think a bit like a real estate investor, especially if you plan to sell your house within a few years. Ask around and find ways to learn about what the average neighborhood kitchen looks like in terms of material and layout. If you aren’t planning to move in a few years, however, this might not matter a whole lot to you.
Homes and Money
The biggest barrier most homeowners truly face is being able to afford maintenance and home improvement at the same time. While personal and home equity loans are possible, some homeowners prefer to save money unless they have an immediate need.
Our suggestion is to regularly put aside some money—one to four percent per paycheck will do—for home expenses. Many contracting companies also offer low-interest financing to cover the rest if you need it.
We do have to mention one thing that will make even the best plans fail: homes can be unpredictable. Just because you spend your time doing home maintenance doesn’t guarantee you will save money on home projects, especially in older homes. Some homeowners have unfortunate timing or accidentally drill through a water pipe in a wall while trying to hang something up. It happens!
A Word on Doing It Yourself (DIY)
Homeowners can save a considerable amount of money doing home projects by themselves. Our suggestion here is to do some work yourself, especially basic home maintenance. YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning about maintenance and project basics. We suggest contacting a professional for certain tasks, such as plumbing and especially for electrical and roofing, as anything involving excess water, high voltages, and heights can get dangerous fast!
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide has given you some food for thought when considering whether to do more home maintenance or pursue value-increasing home improvement projects. We feel the keys to successfully navigating homeownership are to have a savings account, learn to do a few things on your own, and do careful research on home projects, especially if you are planning to move within the next few years.