Good Grief.... Will We ever learn? The importance of Regular Home Maintenance

The human race is often blamed for destroying our planet. Yet if all our intervention stopped, including regular maintenance (as evidenced by a TV documentary on the subject), the Earth would become a pretty forlorn and unusable, un-navigable, overgrown and wild place after only a short period of time. 

If all the money that was lost to home sellers because of deferred home maintenance were tallied, it would represent a significant loss of market value that would astound folks.

Oh Amy, I can fix that little mess right up!  ;-). Hey, congrats on that little shinny thing you got!  Always good to see a friend on the feature board!

Amy, If its maintenance you want, don't marry a builder...he builds it once, and I nag of do the fixing myself! LOL

Amy I freaked out when I moved some furniture and saw water spots on my table and realized the table had been under the AC vent.  I thought oh no I dont want to be one of those without AC we better get the serviceman out here.  I called thinking OMG we will have a pan drip in the attic, luckily the AC checked out and they said the drips were just condensate becasue my vents are located close to the front and back door that opens.  WHEW !!  You are right maintenance buys peace of mind

As with most agents, we can walk into a listing and start spotting deferred maintenance and smaller defects at will since we have seen the same things over and over. As I stood looking at the exterior of my own home last week, the phrase "physician heal thyself" sprung to mind. Time for me to take care of that list of items I've been procrastinating on!

Amy, Your experience will be a good teaching for me! We've got to find a way to handle routine maintenance.  Maybe following a schedule... (works for me).  Thanks for your post.

Great reminder!  Glad you caught it early and where there to manage it.  Good luck!

Just had a new install on the A/C.. Need to practice what I preach in terms of maintenance. Always something.. Thanks for the reminder.

Yep, it sure is wise to practice what we preach. I posted a blog a year or so ago.  "Every Three Years, Pretend Like Your Moving". This weekend I finally took my own advice and tackled a large closet to weed out. WOW, had I only done that a little more frequently!  It wasn't messy, but it sure was crowded. Now, it's clean, clean, clean and everything looks great.  My husband learned that air conditioner lesson a long time ago, so now he calendars his maintenance checks on our own systems.  Nothing like having that kind of financial surprise if we don't!

I just had my system cleaned as part of the annual maintenace fee I pay. I do need ot change the filters every once in a while!

This is the reason my days off are filled with mostly "gotta do lists".  Everytime I turn around there's more to be done

As an inspector (remeber the story of the coblers kids) I spend very little time taking care of the problems at my home, my wife calls the appropriate repair person and has it taken care of because, after dealing with OPH (other peoples homes) I usually just want to relax (never happens). When inspecting homes I always present my clients with a home maintenence manual which contains tips and charts showing what and when things must be done. Women love being able to keep track of what their hubbies are supposed to do and regular maintenence helps keep the value of the property where it belongs.

Attic AC units always scared the bleep out of me. Water problems waiting to happen.

The condensation is supposed to drain to a readily visible location so you can see when AC is running and there is no condensation flowing. Ideally there are two drains, one mounted higher than the other, so that when the first is clogged the water rises and flows out from the second drain. On the lower end one pipe is cut a few inches shorter than the other so when the shorter one starts flowing you know that the primary has clogged. The next step in drainage is your kitchen ceiling.

Amy - had something similar happen to us.  Those darn AC units... isn't it just like them to break when we're all having hot hot hot weather!  

Regular maintence may be a paint but can save you LOTS of money down the road...

Home inspections are great because a good Home Inspector provides a maitenance checklist.  Another important thing is to clean the gutters every year.