We spend a lot to purchase our homes, especially if we’ve bought them this year when home prices are among the highest. So we’d like it to last exceptionally long before we need to maintain it. However, because of growing environmental changes and unforeseeable circumstances, home depreciation becomes a constant struggle every year.
On average, homes depreciate by almost 4% every year. So in 25 years, your home has fully depreciated if you don’t maintain it well enough. Of course, it could be faster, depending on where you live and the life you’re living. With that in mind, here are some simple ways to lessen the depreciation that your home is experiencing every year.
Cleaning
A clean home is a protected home. So you must clean your home at least twice a week if you don’t want bacteria and germs to infiltrate your home and turn into mold.
Mold is one of your greatest enemies when it comes to depreciation. It can devalue your home a lot, even if it’s found in places that are rarely visited, such as the attic and the basement. Mold can stick into your walls and your pipes. They can even damage them, leaving holes that take hundreds of dollars to fix.
When cleaning your home, it’s good to add some natural acid to your cleaning liquid. Don’t use harsh cleaning detergents because they can do more harm to your health than good. Instead, add some vinegar or lemon into water and mix it. You can use that to wipe off mold from walls and prevent them from ever coming back.
Cleaning is the easiest thing you can ever do when it comes to preventing home depreciation. If you dedicate at least a couple of hours to cleaning, then your home will depreciate less than the standard rate.
Maintain Not Replace
You should get into the principle of maintaining your household systems, such as the HVAC one, if you want to spend less on fixing or replacing them every year. It’s estimated that, on average, people spend about $3,000 to $6,000 to replace their broken-down HVAC system. If you compare it to the average cost of maintaining it (around $110 to $200), that’s a significant decrease in price.
The principle of maintaining asks you to save at least 1% of your home’s overall value every year for maintenance. For example, if it cost you $250,000 to purchase your home, you should save at least $2,500 for maintenance. This should be enough to keep your home systems functioning for many years to come.
If you consider it, home systems usually need replacement by their fifth to the tenth year. But by following these principles, you can avoid those costs for over twenty years.
Protect the Exterior of Your Home
Your home’s exterior defends you and your family from the harshness of the outside world. However, it’s one of the first parts that depreciates in every home. So you’ll have to protect it by keeping it clean and maintaining its paint.
The harshness of the outside world can depreciate the exterior of even the toughest of homes. To keep it from depreciating, you should consider hiring exterior home painting services at least once a year. Painting your home’s exterior will ensure that no contaminant will reach the very foundation of your home. This is doubly important if your home is made of wood.
You can also keep the exterior of your home well-maintained by cleaning and wiping any dirt that has accumulated every three months. By doing this, your home exterior can protect you forever.
Plumbing
Lastly, you should always check the plumbing of your home for any leakages or dripping. A faucet dripping can easily cost you $35 a month. That’s $420 on top of your home maintenance budget. If you don’t keep an eye out for plumbing problems, you can quickly accumulate costs and depreciate your home value.
Leaking pipes can also be a serious problem because these pipes can form molds. Whenever there’s moisture, there’s mold. Additionally, blocked drainage can also cause the same damage to your home.
To keep your pipes secured and your drainage unclogged, use drain covers. Drain covers can stop any hard thrash from infiltrating your pipes. You can then throw away the trash in their respected bins. However, if your home has some serious plumbing problems, don’t hesitate to call the plumber. It’s much better to fix the problem right now than let it sit and cause more damage to your home.
Here are ways you can lessen the depreciation your home experiences every year. By doing these things often, you can reduce your overall expenses while keeping your home value at a decent price.
