You mention ant - if I may recommend, it's worth getting a bug guy to look over your house. I would make sure to get the ones where they have entomologists on staff instead of cheap Joe's Bug Service. Especially if you live in a place where there are termites, you want to get ahead of that.
Carpenter ants will chew wood into something resembling foam.
Start watching DIY vids and learning how to fix as much as you can yourself. Lowers repair bills and anxiety.
Get handy. Fix things before they go bad, and learn basic construction on the way. Second hand tools are cheap, and there's a number of good youtubers to help in any situation. After you get your bearings, it turns into a fun way to make the place into what you want it to be. Nothing is terribly difficult, and materials can be had cheap if you're not in an emergency. Facebook marketplace allowed me to build a house for 70k over two years, and it's valued at 350k, and not finished yet. The experience gained led me to doing odd side jobs and reselling unused materials to keep paying for new additions. If you can replace your own water heater, you can replace someone elses for half the price of Lowes and still take home 700$ for three hours work. Pick up some resold tile and put in a bathroom wall. You'll find out what you did wrong in your own bathroom and won't mess up someone elses for some extra cash in a pinch.
Electrical work is my favorite. Know the code, and how to stay safe, and it's a lot of fun that the average person is HORRIFIED of. Get a good electricians multitool, a current tester, a drill and some tape, and you can perform miracles.
Most people will never afford a house. You don't have to fix it, you get to fix it, so take pride and make it somewhere you love to live.
All this is part of the game. What you save on not paying a landlord you pay in time keeping up with the place. Every ant and water drip is a challenge that you get to learn about fixing and make it your own. We're all lucky we live in a time where you can learn how to do anything from the internet.
If you need to hire a tradesperson, find small companies, folks who work for themselves. We're WAY cheaper than the shops are and can usually a) make time for you and b) work with you on it all. Plus, we need the money more ;D
For real though, I just bought my first home a couple years back and I get it. There's a lot I don't know still. It'll be alright, just keep an eye out for water damage. And if something starts sparking, cut the breaker off and call someone. Pretty much anything up to that point can be handled with YouTube and Harbor Freight.
Maybe take a moment to appreciate the incredible privilege you have to own your home. Nearly everyone reading this will never get to own a home.
It's been far more expensive than renting. We bought a house with a lot of problems and kt8a struggle. I would never call it a privilege. It's like buying a car built in 1983 with 500,000 miles.
Well. No, not really. Owning a house is just stressful, period. And sometimes really expensive things happen that you couldn't foresee.
For ants, you want to get food-safe diatomaceous earth, and a bulb-style dispenser. If you can tell where they're coming from, blow some diatomaceous earth in there. It's completely safe for people and pets, but will kill insects. There's also some non-toxic treatments for wood--Nissin Boracare, for instance--that will help prevent termite, ant, and powderpost beetle infestations.
Learn how to fix things in your house and it will give you the confidence to stop worrying about every little thing or sound.
I understand this will sound crazy. I started running, a lot. A few half marathons per year. It's a juxtaposition of enjoying the benefits and hating the activity.
The biggest benefit is being able to handle more stress, and deal with the stress better, in general. I tell myself during the first mile (as it's the most difficult to start), "I am expanding my capacity to endurance stress and suffering" it's shifted the way I look at problems.
A recent example: I paid a contractor to build a wall to split a room, and to install new flooring on the floor. It looked nice. A year later, I encountered a problem in the bathroom that exposed a leak that's probably existed since the work was done. The bathroom is being torn apart and completely redone by me. I'm not thrilled, and was absolutely pissed at first, but it's subsided much faster than it used to. I can't afford to hire someone again, but I do have another bathroom to use during this process, so it can wait. It's shifted my perspective, and I'm seeing this now as "expanding a set of skills that can be useful again" instead of completely dreading it. Of course I prefer this didn't happen 😊 but wishing reality is different doesn't help anything.
I solved this by selling my house and outsourcing all those bullshit problems to the landlord.
I can't think of a time I've ever had a landlord fix a problem. I wish I lived somewhere that you could just deduct repair costs from the rent, or otherwise withhold rent.
For some of the other posts I see here, in case you have these problems in the future. These aren't in order of importance.
Powdered ant killer that comes in the tube is better than those little ant traps. Don't waste your money on traps.
I had a groundhog living under some cement steps in the backyard. Tried all sorts of things to evict him, but didn't want to kill or hurt him. Tried repellents, moth balls, pepper powder, etc. Tried filling in the hole repeatedly. eventually I got pissed and started dumping the cat box in the den. I only had to do it once.
If you're paranoid about burglars, neighbors, etc. get some motion sensing lights for outside. And the cheapest home security cameras you can get. I started with some very cheap Blink wifi cameras (battery powered, about $100 for 4 on Woot!) years ago. Upgraded last year to mains powered Blink LED lights and cameras. Then when I went on vacation for a couple weeks, I pulled the battery cameras out of the drawer and set them up strategically inside the house. Blink charges a monthly subscription now (I grandfathered in before they charged), so plan accordingly.
know where all the shutoffs are, and how to use them. Power, Water, Natural gas, etc. And DON'T FUCK WITH NATURAL GAS! Let the professionals do it. I guy near Detroit killed his entire family last year swapping out a hot water heater himself. He survived. The house was no longer there.
Smoke alarms, get them. at least one for every level, PLUS one in every bedroom. Get the connected alarms that set off the entire house when one goes off. CO detectors too, if you have appliances that burn stuff.
I'm in the same boat. Bought a home in 2020. It's been a constant stream of fixes and updates and replacements. My mortgage payments are high enough. Now we're dumping thousands of dollars on flood prevention, evestrough replacement, random leaky pipes, furnace cleaning, deck refinishing, grass and landscaping. Wife and I both work full-time. We are dipping into savings to upkeep our home. I totally regret it. Should have bought a 2-3bed condo instead. At least we could plan for the monthly condo fees and not worry about sudden emergency fixes. I don't know. I hate it.
Even with an HOA, you can still end up needing to pay tens of thousands for surprise repairs in the forms of special assessments, especially if the HOA is poorly managed.
Yeah I don't know how I feel about neighbors. I have good neighbors, but they are about 20 feet from me in either direction.
I had a shitty house and it is so stressful. Just do things as you can. #1 was metal roof so I didn't have to think about the roof ever again. Get tented for dry wood termites after paying off the roof (they are everywhere here but very slow eaters). Get flooring one room at a time. Learn enough plumbing to replace fixtures, and get new piping throughout house after recovering.
My only real tip is get roommates, split these costs among more wage earners or if you know someone handy and homeless let them live with you for free and pay them a little for the work too.
Sorry no. My condo is massively in need of renovation and I was saving and planning for it before I lost my job so luckily that ended up being a thing to get me through it.
Not a home owner yet, but I just purchased a home and waiting on the handover.
This post has been really helpful! Certainly in writing some stuff down to remember 😅
Find the little things that are easy to fix. Recently I had two sections of my laminated flooring that started to peel. I got some low profile transaction strips and set them up. Worked out that the area to repair the actual divide between my living room and dining room so it looks like it was supposed to be there.
Is this a typical feeling? I've been planning to buy a home soon....
This is absolutely normal when you first buy the place. I bought my place in 2017 and was super anxious over the first year because I suddenly had basically no savings and all my equity was in this building. I didn't know anything about home repair and couldn't afford to hire someone who did.
The thought of something going wrong enough that it would ruin the place gave me an anxiety attack more than once.
Then, after a couple years and a few things needing fixed, I realized that things don't go wrong that often and most of the time if they do, they are easy to fix.
I think it depends on the property and the amount of repairs you can afford.
We budgeted .5% of the cost of the house for repairs annually - put it aside in a separate account so you can replace the roof/furnace/etc without taking a lifestyle hit.
Adjust the proportion by the age and state of the property.
Yes, but you get used to it. It's a typical feeling for the first few years if it's your first house.
Learn to repair things properly and that will reduce a ton of stress. You will also learn what things can be put off and what needs to be done immediately.
Over the years, I have learned how to do just about every kind of home repair or update. Its been rewarding, actually.
I think it really depends on the home, get an inspection to try to see some of the problems beforehand and you won't be caught too off guard.
For me water is the biggest thing, water in the basement, water through the roof, water by the window sills, it never ends! Every expense seems to be another 5k or 20k, owning a fixer upper is an expensive endeavor
I have have pretty bad anxiety. So it may me just me.
It is, but OP’s is a little worse because they got a fixer-upper. If you’re buying new (or newer), you should have less anxiety given you get a proper inspection done before closing. You’ll still have to learn doing maintenance and repairs of course, as there will always be something that will come up.
Like the others said, try to do the stuff on your own. YouTube has helped me tons with that but I still don't touch electrical work. :)
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