House Shopping? Get The Utility Use.
House shopping is fun for most people. Buying a home is fun too, most of the time. But there are parts of the process that are, well, a little boring. 
Like making sure you know what to expect to pay for your utilities.
If you’re buying a house in the Barre/Montpelier area, the heating bill is likely to be the biggest part of your utility expenses. And for good reason. It’s cold here, and it’s cold for a good chunk of the year.
The most common ways to heat homes in this area is by using propane or oil, and using those fuels to run a boiler or a furnace. Wood stoves and pellet stoves are also common. Space heaters and electric baseboard heating are out there too. Sometimes you’ll run into a real salad bar of heating systems, and find a house that uses three or four different methods of heating.
What you need to keep in mind is that different households use different amounts of heat. As an example, when our first daughter was born, our parenting instincts kicked in (thankfully), and we kept the house warmer (if not cleaner) than we had when it was just my wife and me.
As someone buying a house in the area, what’s important is what you can reasonably expect to pay for heat. Definitely ask the current owners how much they have used. Getting the actual amount of fuel (gallons of oil, cords of firewood, tons of pellets) is more useful than the dollar amount, as pricing changes daily and can vary greatly from season to season.
These numbers are fairly easy to come by. Just call your utility provider. Green 
Mountain Power and Washington Electric will give 12 month usage. Your oil or propane provider will be able to go through their delivery records to see how much a house has used over the past year. As a buyer, you may need to depend on the current owner doing that legwork. But, as I said, it’s pretty easy. If you have questions on getting these numbers, I’m happy to help. Call or email.
Put those numbers into your monthly expense calculation. It’s ok to average it out over 10 or 12 months, since most utilities will let you spread out payments over the course of the year.
And don’t forget about the electric bill and the water/sewer bill. Both of these may vary from household to household, but will tend to be fairly similar across households.
Don’t be scared when you see that final utility bill. If you currently own a house, you’re already pretty familiar with these numbers. If you’re renting now, and not paying the utilities (directly), the landlord already has those expenses built into the rent. So, um, you kind of already are paying them.
Like I said, figuring out utility use and monthly budgeting isn’t terribly fun. But it is important to know when you’re buying a house in Montpelier or Barre.
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