Owning a home is just the beginning. After getting your mortgage loan approved and completing your purchase of the property, you have additional challenges to overcome. The first one is filling the property with furniture and turning it into a comfortable home for the family. This challenge is actually a lot of fun to tackle.
The second challenge is maintaining the house. Home maintenance can be as expensive as the interest on your mortgage loan. Bigger repairs can cost you even more than that. Worry not, because you can still be frugal with maintaining your home. These next few tips and tricks will help you save money on home repairs and maintenance.
Maintain Regularly
You want to avoid big repairs as much as possible when you are trying to be frugal, and the way to do that is by maintaining the house regularly. Instead of waiting until something goes wrong with the plumbing system, inspect and maintain the pipes every month. Rather than letting faulty wiring damage your appliances, work towards spotting the problems early.
Regular maintenance is always more affordable than dealing with damages and conducting repairs. Yes, it may seem like you are spending money for nothing when you pay for routine maintenance, but you are actually avoiding bigger repair bills in the process.
Get Insurance
Speaking of avoiding big repair bills, another way you can save on home repairs is by getting insurance that covers home emergencies. This type of insurance, including boiler cover and electrical insurance, is a lot easier to find on the market.
For starters, you now have boiler cover plans from Certi offering budget-friendly coverage. The plans are designed to protect you from home emergencies, including boiler repairs and problems with the plumbing system.
You pay a small monthly fee for the boiler maintenance cover in exchange for unlimited claims, access to professionals at all times, and free maintenance by the company. You can certainly avoid big repair bills, allowing you to save more than £200 on repairs alone every year.
Do It Yourself
Some home maintenance and repair tasks are things you can do yourself. You still need to have the right tools and to know how to do the repair or maintenance routine properly, but the rest is easier than you think. After all, you have the internet – and the resources it provides – at your fingertips.
Most home repairs aren’t that difficult. You can fix a clogged sink using baking soda and lemon. Cleaning the gutter is something you can do on a Saturday morning, using nothing but a ladder and some basic tools. The same can be said for other tasks such as sealing a broken window.
For bigger tasks, it is best to let professionals handle them. Doing it yourself – and doing something wrong – will only cause more issues that are more expensive to solve. Besides, most repair services are affordable, plus you have the option to use boiler cover we discussed earlier covering the cost.
Get Free Inspections
You don’t have to pay for thorough inspections of the house. Many contractors and home repair service providers will inspect the property for you as part of their services. These inspections are free and come with no strings attached.
You will still get a quote at the end of the inspection depending on the issues discovered during the process, but you are not obliged to follow through with hiring the service provider. On the other hand, you still benefit from the inspection.
Thorough home inspections help you uncover potential issues before they turn into bigger problems. Solving uncovered issues is a lot easier. You also avoid dealing with other damage caused by the issues when they eventually materialise.
Compare Quotes
Getting multiple quotes and comparing them is the last tip on our list. Instead of going for the first contractor or repair company you come across, you must always take the time to compare quotes from multiple service providers. Yes, this usually means having several home inspections done thoroughly.
Comparing quotes brings two major benefits. First, the multiple inspection results let you see the problems around the house from a more objective standpoint. You can compare the findings of one inspection with the other to see if you really have potential problems to solve.
You also have the opportunity to find the best deal on the repair. Don’t forget to ask for a discount – and to mention that you are comparing service providers – to save even more on your boiler repairs and other tasks. There are coupons and online discounts you can use too.
With these tips in mind, you don’t have to worry about your home repair and maintenance costs going way beyond your budget. Owning a property and maintaining it properly can still be very affordable if you know the right tips and tricks to use; now you do!
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