Did you just buy a house?! Congratulations!
In this video I've got 10 home maintenance tips for
new homeowners. This is the list I wish I got when I bought my first house. So,
hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and oversights! If this is your first time here, welcome!
If you've been here before thank you so much for coming back and for spending
your time with me. My name is Lindsay and I'm a proud
Anthem resident and your local REALTOR® with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group. On this channel we have a lot of fun
talking about all things Anthem and real estate, every single Thursday
and we absolutely love having you along for the ride. First off, before we
jump into the home maintenance list, I want to take a second to
wholeheartedly congratulate you on buying a house. That's huge! You should
be so proud of yourself, because no matter who you are,
or where you are, this undoubtedly took some sacrifice on your part. When we
bought our first house I was so nervous and excited, and oh my
goodness did we have our work cut out for us!
I had so much to learn about owning a house.
Growing up I lived in rentals which means that all of the big maintenance
items were handled by the property manager.
On top of that, I grew up outside of North America where the construction of
homes was very different than what we have here.
Thankfully my husband is extremely handy and he had
a great handle on everything that needed to be done... oh and
lots of YouTube videos! Thank goodness for YouTube!
Anyways, all of this is a long way of saying that I had no clue what I was
doing when we first bought our house and I have learned so much. What I want
to share with you today is a list of things that you might
overlook when you first buy your house. These are preventative maintenance items
that don't take a lot of work but can save you a ton of money down the road.
I'll also share a bonus maintenance item at the end of this video, that I
literally just learned when I was doing the research for this video. That's right,
this home ownership business is a new adventure every day! #1: Clean the gutters. This one is so important. For me our
gutters were kind of out of sight, out of mind. Ideally, I think
that you would have your gutters checked and cleaned
twice a year. Failing that, in Arizona you really need to do it before the start of
monsoon season. Your gutters play a really
important role in diverting water away from your home.
If they're not properly cared for or cleaned you could experience
flooding. If you have any trees that are close to the gutter or that drop debris
in them you may want to consider having them
removed, or at the very least having them trimmed back.
#2: Check your roof. Here in Anthem we have tile roofs.
We're usually looking to see if there are any crack tiles,
missing tiles, cracked mortar packs, or evidence of birds. If you spot any of
these you're going to want to have a roofer or a handyman out to the
property to make the repairs. I am so hesitant to recommend that you
get up and walk around on your roof. One, because it's dangerous and two,
because you need to know what you're doing if you're going to walk around on
a tile roof. It's way too easy to jump up there and
crack a tile. If you're not going up on your roof, hire
a professional or consider using a drone to fly over
and have a look. #3: Drain your hot water heater. By taking
the time to properly care for your hot water heater you can greatly extend its
life. Sediment can build up in the tank and
draining it helps to flush that sediment out.
We did a whole video on how to drain your hot water heater,
and trust me if I can do it, you can definitely do it.
So, I will link to that in the cards in case you want to check it out. You can
read the owner's manual for your particular model but typically doing
this once per year is sufficient. #4: HVAC servicing. Having your
heating, ventilation, and cooling system serviced is so important. I haven't been
brave enough to try tackling this one myself yet, though.
We just hire a local company that comes out,
takes a look, and does any repairs or adjustments, as needed. We have our units
serviced once per year and it's been running really well.
I've been in an Arizona house in the middle of the summer when the AC
died and it's not pretty. So, we just do everything we can to prolong the life of
our equipment. #5: Change your filters. If you're like me
you may not have realized that your home came with so many filters. You need to
change the filters on your HVAC system, your fridge, and your reverse osmosis
system (if you have one). You also need to be cleaning the filter
in your dishwasher. For the HVAC system, I was told that it's better to use a
cheaper filter and change it once per month rather than
opting for the more expensive filters that require less changing.
As for the fridge and the reverse osmosis system, you're going to want to
consult your owner's manual for the filter replacement schedule. With respect
to the dishwasher filter the best advice I ever got was from the salesperson who sold my parents their new dishwasher.
He said that we should take out our filters and clean them
every time the light on the dishwasher comes on to remind us to add rinse agent.
Ever since then, that's been my go-to and so far, so good. #6: Clean your
dryer vent. This one I definitely knew about before we bought
a house. I saw those infomercials for the Lint Lizard where
the house was on fire because somebody forgot to clean the dryer vent!
Depending on how your home is laid out and where the dryer vent is located,
you may be able to clean it out on your own. If you can't reach the outlet
or if you don't have the right equipment to get all the way through,
I strongly recommend that you hire a professional. This one
is a serious safety hazard if ignored. #7: Service your smoke alarms. Speaking of things that are a safety risk, you need
to test your smoke detectors and your carbon monoxide detectors. The US Fire Administration recommends that you test your smoke alarms once per
month, by pressing the test button. I definitely haven't been great about
doing this every month. So, you can guess what i'll be doing as
soon as i turn off the camera! Also, smoke alarms should be replaced
every 10 years. You can usually find the date of
manufacture on the back of your smoke alarm. If it's more than 10 years old,
replace it. #8: Test your water pressure.
Did you know that water pressure that's too high can damage your fixtures?
Having to replace all of your plumbing fixtures would get
really expensive, really quickly. You can get a water pressure gauge for less than
$20. You want your water pressure to be
between 40 and 60 psi. If your water pressure is too low
or too high, you'll likely want to consult with a plumber.
#9: Service your garage door. No word of a lie,
I have the worst luck when it comes to garage doors. Everywhere I
have ever lived, where we've had a garage, we've had problems with the doors,
without fail! Having been on both sides, I can't decide if it was worse having the
car stuck inside the garage or having the car
outside the garage and the doors stuck halfway open and needing to get to a
meeting in a hurry. If you don't maintain your garage door
it will break at some point. I recommend having it serviced once per year
or if it starts to make a funny noise. Don't ignore any weird noises! In the meantime, you can lubricate the springs with an
inexpensive can of garage door lubricant. #10: Prevent Pests. Some pests are
just a nuisanc,e while others like termites or pigeons can cause serious
damage to your home. Termites are definitely something that
we need to watch out for here in Arizona. In fact, we did a whole
video on how to prevent termites and the steps you need to take every
year to save yourself from a big repair bill.
If you'd like to check that out, I will link to it in the cards for this video.
You need to find out what types of pests are common in your area,
if they can cause damage to your home, and how to prevent them.
Alright, I promised you a bonus maintenance tip, too, right?
Well, when I was doing my research for this video, I came across an article that
recommended that you clean your refrigerator coils.
What?! That's right. Dust can accumulate around the coils and
shorten the lifespan of your fridge. Now, where the coils are located will depend
on your fridge model. So, guess what I'm doing this weekend. So,
there you have it! If you're looking for more home maintenance
ideas or things that you should be looking out for,
I strongly recommend that you read through your inspection reports in
detail. These reports contain so much valuable
information, way beyond just the things that need
immediate attention in your home. What project do you think you'll tackle
first? Was there anything on this list that you were surprised to hear?
If you found this video helpful let me know by hitting that like button,
subscribing to our channel, and leaving me a comment. Lastly, if you'd like to
check out the video I mentioned on how to drain your hot water heater
you can click up here or if you're interested in learning ways
to save energy and money at home, click to watch this
video on the bottom. Enjoy those and I'll see you next
Thursday!
