Owning and moving into your first home, or even your 5th home can be very exciting for you and your family. You have probably spent hours or possibly even years looking for this perfect place and now you are moving in. Or perhaps you are still looking for that home and you are a proactive type and doing your research on homeownership. Either way lets discuss what the hidden costs of owning a home are and what you could expect.

Maintenance Items to Watch out for

Depending on the type of home you have purchased, whether it be a detached home, townhouse or condo apartment, the maintenance items will vary drastically. So we will give you an overview of some of the big items.

• The exterior of the Home - If you own a yard or land, there will be maintenance that you will need to do every year. For example, to keep you home in good condition and keep the curb appeal that you fell in love with, you will want to a spring and fall clean up. You will want to make sure you winterized the exterior of your home too, which could include bleeding the water hose lines and prepping the yard for the snow. 

• Landscaping - this can be a cost that you wouldn’t expect to first off cost a lot and secondly, many homeowners think this is a great investment into their home’s future value. Unfortunately, doing landscaping doesn’t get you a 1:1 return on your investment. We’ve seen this to be more of a .5:1, where you will not see your full ROI on what you put into landscaping… something to keep in mind.

• Furnace - A great rule of thumb is to change your filters at a minimum of 1x per year. More is great too, depending on where you live. If you live in an area where there is lots of traffic and construction around you, this must be more frequent.

  Read More Here: https://www.chamberlaingroup.ca/blog/16-important-hidden-costs-of-home-ownership-in-calgary-chamberlain-real-estate-group.html