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Buying your first new home is an exciting time filled with a lot of important decisions. It can be difficult to prioritize what projects to take on, and what measures to take to ensure your home is properly maintained and insured. Here are a few of the steps you should take as a new homeowner to make sure you can enjoy your new home without any additional stress.
1. Don’t Ignore Importance Maintenance Items
Your landlord days are over. If there’s something broken in your new home, it’s your responsibility now, and it’s important to take care of larger maintenance jobs sooner rather than later. Ignoring a seemingly small problem can turn it into a larger and costlier one in the long run. Budgeting is important, so attempting to prioritize which items on your checklist are emergent and which are nonessentials.
2. Get Properly Insured
Life is unpredictable, and it’s important to be insured. Mortgage lenders require new homeowners to purchase homeowners insurance, but you should also consider life insurance. If your income manages the household, you’ll need life insurance that names each person in your home as a beneficiary so they will not risk losing the house in the event of an emergency or unexpected death.
3.Know The Difference Between Repairs and Improvements
To the IRS, repairs are part of parcel of home ownership, meaning it preserves the home’s original value but does not actually enhance the value. While this may not seem true in all cases, only improvements such as completely replacing the roof, a new addition, or adding central air warrant a decrease on your tax bill when you sell your home. Repairs are necessary, but they won’t save you money in the future.
4.Hire Qualified Contractors
Your home deserves the same care and attention you would give anything else you value highly, such as your health. When you need surgery, you’d go to the best surgeon or doctor possible. When it’s time to do work in your home, make sure you are hiring qualified contractors to do the big jobs. Painting the walls is the perfect DIY task that will make you feel proud to be a homeowner, but don’t start cutting holes in those walls and try to rewire your kitchen. Professionals will help keep your home in the best condition, work in a time-efficient manner, avoid injury, and allow you to enjoy living in your new house.
5. Keep Your Receipts!
We already discussed the advantage of home improvements if you do choose to sell your home, but to redeem that tax credit you’ll need to keep excellent records. If you have no receipts saved, you cannot claim the money spent on improvements to increase your home’s basis, or difference between the price and expenses in a transaction when calculating taxes. In short, keeping receipts to increase this basis will help you maximize your tax-free earnings on the sale of your home, and it’s better to start keeping records from the very beginning.
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