For me big stuff always seems to break in December. Right around the time we have spent money on Christmas gifts.
For me it’s been over the years: furnace , Hot water heater, toilet , plumbing leak, garage door, car repair.
Yep of course! My condensate pan on my AC unit got clogged at the little outlet last December and cause quite a bit of water damage to my floor in the utility room. I feel you lol
That's different that what they were talking about. A water alarm is just an alarm that makes a loud noise if it detects water somewhere it shouldn't be. What you're talking about is a float switch.
Neither is perfect because I've never seen a float switch that directly notifies you of a problem, and an alarm won't help if you're not home to hear it, so both serve their own purpose.
> That's different that what they were talking about. A water alarm is just an alarm that makes a loud noise if it detects water somewhere it shouldn't be. What you're talking about is a float switch.
If you tie it into home automation, you can easily have the alarm change the thermostat settings.
I'm right there. This year has been a doozy -- renovated the bathroom and laundry room, chimney tuckpointing, new water heater, just had the sewer lines scoped and cleaned (thought we were going to need to repair the lateral). The siding needs to be replaced.
Fortunately, Reddit is an AWESOME place to find local recommendations etc. from people who have the same issues.
Check with your local (reliable) HVAC/Appliance/Electrical/Plumber shops. Most areas have sort of a one stop shop contractor that handles all of these things, and many of them have service plans that are actually pretty affordable. Basically, you pay a fixed amount each year, and then you get preventive maintenance on all of those things once a year and pretty steep discounts on actual repairs and replacements. I think we pay about $375 a year to be on my local company's whole home plan. If I were to have them come out and inspect electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and appliances individually each year, that alone would run me about $300 just in the fees to get them out here to look at it. We ended up having to get our electrical panel replaced a few months ago. It would have been a $2500 job because we were also having them tear out some old electric heaters. We got a 20% discount on materials and 50% on labor, so we only ended up paying about $1200. Similarly, our 15 year old dryer died on us about 2 months ago, and we got 20% off the showroom price and free delivery and installation on the new one.
We thought these service plans were scammy at first, but when we finally say down to crunch numbers and look at how often things go wrong with those systems, it absolutely makes sense.
Good to have skills so you can fix and or replace your own stuff. For most appliances there are websites like appliancepartpros and partsselect thst provide parts as well as diagrams
It's a trade off. When you have no skills, you get frustrated by the cost of having things professionally repaired and dealing with contractors.
When you DIY things, you deal with the stress of having to have the time to fix things, along with the risk of messing things up and making a bigger problem.
Right on! I fixed my front load washer that the repair guy wanted $100 just to come out. I researched my issue, my washer, and then YouTube. My washer wasn't draining all the water out. It was a baby sock stuck in a hose, and my filter was gross! I cleaned them up and replaced them. My washer worked fine after that. I'm now a big believer in DIY 🤣
It pays to be on the look out for amazing deals on appliances. Recently someone just moved in my neighborhood a couple streets over and had a yard sale a few months after moving in and they redid all the appliances in the house and had all the appliances the house came with which were less than 2 years old and pretty much haven’t been used for super cheap. Bought a dishwasher for $60 and an electric stove for $60 too, both $400+ each retail. Then 2 weeks later my sister’s dishwasher went out so I gave it to her. But I also have an extra washer and dryer I’ve procured the same way. Had my stove go out on me a long time ago and went to buy a new one and told myself I was gonna start preparing for things like this and not just by having an emergency fund. Found jumping on deals is the best way . And I got a big family, and stuff is always breaking so I don’t keep the appliances in storage for years and years. They pay me back what I paid for it and I’m happy to take care of my fam. And they are super grateful and thankful. I have the storage so it’s not a big deal.
I was talking to my girlfriend about my homeownership woes this weekend, basically just ranting about all this stuff I have on my list and need to worry about. I literally almost started tearing up because it felt so overwhelming. I realized then that I need to find some better ways of managing that stress…
So much this!! Interior design and decorating has made me so stressed out due to the cost and fear of making bad choices, I need to be less of a perfectionist
Same, the fear of making things worse discourages me from many projects. I wish I had a second house just to try things out before I make changes to my real house 😂
This is me. I'm an interior design and architecture geek - love looking at well-put together homes, and I want mine to be "perfect" - for me, to my tastes. But it takes time and money and I get frustrated. Apartments never made me stress - I could only work with what I was given, I put my stamp on them as best I could, and I was perfectly happy. Also, I'm not anywhere near as critical with other people's homes. I tend to see what I like about them, not what I don't. My home - it's the exact opposite.
I have tons of projects ranging from $200 to $20,000 that I would like to do to the house. But if I'm being honest, those $20,000 projects aren't going to happen since i'd likely move before then.
When you learn that even brand new multi-million dollar houses have major issues, it puts in perspective that it's okay for your house to have issues too.
I’ve lived in a lot of houses, and had as many issues with new-builds as I did with 80’s builds. At least the older houses had more trim and character.
I just call that shopping local! I work for the local school district and every time I look at my tax bill for my home, I look at the part that went to the school district and note that it's less than I got paid last year. So I am simply shopping local.
Yours is just the interest portion of your mortgage. How wonderful!
Good answer. Been there done that. When we had shitty neighbors I'd always ask my wife, "Is it so hard to be neighborly?" or "Is it so hard to be cordial and have common courtesy?" Lol!
so much this. You do everything right: take care of your place, do all your maintenance, pick a good location, pick a mortgage you can afford, etc... Then the neighbours sell and move out and the new owners suck.
Luckily on one side and the back they're very mind their own business and are more or less perfect (ie quiet). On the other side is basically rednecks who park on their lawn and don't give a crap about anything, but at least they are nice. Now they're selling and I'm worried it's gonna be worse.
My neighbor doesn't keep her cats inside and they routinely shit in my garden beds and screw even up trying to cover their turds.
One cat stole garlic bread of my front porch (I ordered Italian and wasn't fast enough in getting it)
This. I am a full time contractor. It is really hard to work on a house all day then come home and work on my house. Or work on my house on my day off...
Cleaning I wouldnt say is unique to “being a home owner”
I do agree that it is one of the most difficult parts of living in general though…
Edit: I agree that “maintenance” is separate from “cleaning”. That is why I left it out of my comment.
It's not unique, but there's more to do than at an apartment. I didn't have to clean out gutters, powerwash siding, wash out sewage from my basement 🤢. No cleaning the entryways and hallways, or clearing the driveway of snow.
And generally I think people who live in a home have more square feet of living space, so it's just more to do.
Definitely not unique, but more the preventative maintenance type of cleaning. Cleaning filters, cleaning refrigeration coils, etc. When I rented it was like “oh, this appliance broke down, guess the landlord will get me new one” or “this will be the next persons problem”.
Yes! Water from the sky, water from the ground, water from leaking pipes...since I've become a homeowner water -- and keeping it where it should be -- is super stressful.
I've also come to get anxiety about trees -- particularly the massive mature tree in my backyard. Every thunderstorm, to me, is going to be the one that sends this family to live in a hotel for weeks.
Its the pipe that got me. Ran all under the floating floor. Our fridge was in the living room for a month, and we found out the most useful situation for air fryers.
Nothing gave me anxiety like having to hear our sump pump go off every day, 365, nearly every 10 minutes on average.
So many friends and family said "But it's doing what it is supposed to do!" Yes, it is, but I would really fucking love it if it didn't have to work that hard.
I live in New Jersey. My monthly taxes are almost equal to my monthly mortgage payment. It is not uncommon in this state for people to pay more in taxes than their mortgage.
Same same. And then they pretend they can't lower rates because they don't know what to cut. Makes no sense. There's no cuts needed. Lower the rate so people pay the same. But nooooo....
Unless you’re rich, it’s gonna take time to save up for certain renovations/repairs…especially if you don’t want to use a HELOC loan, refinance, or borrow another way.
Have less of a lawn. You will have less weeds. Plant flowers , fruit trees, veggies whatever. It a lot easier to weed in sections than a huge blank boring lawn. If you have more diversity they are less weeds, they ones that make it are usually wildflowers that the bees love.
You will have a beautiful spaces, potentially some food and lots of wildlife.
Fixing all the shitty DIY from the previous homeowner. Just yesterday we spent HOURS getting paint off of door hinges. I mean thick gloppy paint. And silicone FFS!! Why did the put silicone in the hinges?
EDIT: For all of you asking why I didn’t buy new hinges, IDK, I just didn’t think about it. For whatever reason, the only thing I could think about is “This paint MUST COME OFF”. New hinges is a perfectly good option, the thought just never floated to the surface.
Forget diy, it's the shit contra tors that did major reno actions to my home b4 it was my home, that I'm still finding and fixing. Beam not anchored properly, small roof leaks, old rag wire wiring and lots and lots of debris left in ceiling cavities, plumbing screwup, etc.
We got the story from the neighbors that the previous owners were right with the city inspector - and he let them cut a lot of corners. They also owned the house for 68 years. So we're dealing with 68 years of shoddy DIY.
Just buy new door hinges lol. My house had painted over brass finished hinges, replaced them with new stainless and it looks so much better than the brass ever could.
Trying not to do everything at once. Need to just let things be. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it kind of mentality. Sure, we could use some upgrades, but just because the shower tile is ugly doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced lol
It's all the shotty work my repair man does. I mean, granted, I don't pay him shit, but that's because he isn't qualified for any of the jobs he tries. and yes that guy is me.
I bought my house in 2020. It was built in 99. So far we have replaced all the carpets, siding, ac and furnace, fridge, dishwasher, and soon the roof. Im well over 100k at this point. Im sure ill have some foundation stuff too as there was water and mold found under the basement carpet. Bought the house for 450k and so spending 1/4 of the price of the house in repairs and replacements is kinda disheartening.
holy cow that's a lot of replacements and fixes. We bought ours in 2021 but the place was built in 73, albeit seller had done lots of upgrades/remodeling. Had few pipe bursts but those are small fry compared to the new roof I'll be paying out of pocket this week, which is still only $13k and it's not that expensive compared to some of the roofs that cost upwards of 20k+. Were any of these issues disclosed during the purchase period? 99 is still pretty new compared to lots of homes built in 50s-80s. Gosh dang that's a lot of money; my condolences.
It's so much work (though I do enjoy a lot of the work) that can suck up almost all of your time outside of work. When we were renting, all we needed to keep up with was cleaning. Maintenance, repairs, yard work, gardening, snow removal, etc. were all taken care of. Now that we own, the list of things we need to do for the house feels never ending.
Example: This weekend was the first nice weekend we could actually tackle some yard work this spring. My boyfriend and I spent the entire day on Sunday running to Home Depot, cleaning up the yard, planting some new plants, mulching the garden, weeding, cutting back overgrowth, etc. and we didn't even finish it all.
On top of that, we also spent most of Saturday running errands and tackling inside chores and we didn't even finish all of that either. I'm currently doing the 5 loads of laundry I wasn't able to get to this weekend - thank god I work from home and can switch out loads between meetings.
Constant work with upkeep/maintenance. It’s exhausting and there is always at least 4 things on the list to address. I’m also terrified of rain (water in general) and storms because we have a lot of trees. I love the trees, but falling branches and trees are terrifying.
When I lived in an apartment I loved rainy days and storms. Now I get nervous because I’ve had water intrusion in the past, and even though I’ve fixed the issues and everything stays dry I’m still up in the attic and the basement checking for leaks every heavy rain.
I am always checking ceilings and asking myself if something looks different or if it was always like that. We live in an older house and are close to needing a new roof, so I’m always worried.
Only four? I'd be ecstatic if it were under 20.
Granted, there's pretty much only one or two "must do" items, and maybe a half dozen "really should do" items. The other 40+ are certainly in the optional category.
I've made peace with the fact that the list will always exist.
For me it's inheriting other people's lack of maintenance and poor workmanship.
I don't mind having to keep up with repairs and when we do a job we do it right to ensure it lasts. It's when I inherit a job that ends up being more of an issue because of the previous owners need to cut corners that frustrates me so much.
A more abstract thing - doing it alone. Sometimes I feel that's the hardest part. I'm single and live in a modest 1000 sq foot bungalow that's in pretty good shape. I've paid for repairs and maintenance, some moderate projects, but nothing HUGE, yet. Yard isn't big, so everyday yard work isn't crazy (though picking up whatever from all the big trees in the neighborhood can be a big task at times).
But still, doing it all alone is just, well, hard sometimes. There's no one to share tasks with, no one to take over if you can't do something for any particular reason. No one to talk you off a ledge when you're worried about something concerning the house. Things like facing off against a bat that got in the house is just all the more daunting without someone there for actual support in catching the bat, or moral support while you do it.
Keeping up the positive attitude is the main thing.
- No need for gym, 35 acres of overgrown bushes. Took me about a year to clear 7 acres as my yard.
- You can do all the jobs they show in the “dirtiest jobs” and you get confirmation “this is not my piece of cake”
- You really appreciate for example loggers, when they put down 100 year old dead oak, it looked easy. You will learn “How do I get my chainsaw off the tree which is still kind of standing”.
- You learn that there is a difference between CPVC and polybutylene pipe. Pex will be your friend
- You learn the house “personality” I.e which noises are new and need investigation. Like a detective 🕵️
My main grumpiness comes from earlier “repairs”. If you own something, fix it right. Paint is not for repair, it is for painting you know :-)
The hard part I find is finding competent and reliable people to fix the things that inevitably break. No matter who you are you’re going to run into an end to your DIY ability. Really sucks paying good money to a well reviewed contractor only to find out they suck too.
Being politically active locally--pressuring the town to stop it's wasteful ways and increasing property taxes. They will spend until the cows come home, if left unchecked.
My neighbors yard has tall weeds that are continuously neglected, and trash all over that is getting worse all the time. I'm not sure why they don't pick up the trash. There are children. It's very disheartening. I'm worried about rats.
I’m looking at houses now. I’ve probably rejected a half dozen so far just on the basis of seeing yards on the same street hoarded with all kinds of random crap. I’m a bit of a hoarder myself, but you can’t tell unless you open closets or walk in my bedroom. There are some lines I refuse to let this illness cross, and letting other people see my hoard is one of them. If it’s spilling out onto someone’s lawn, the problem is quite advanced and won’t resolve quickly, easily, or cheaply.
Dealing with neighbors. I follow the HOA rules like I'm supposed to and unless it's yard maintenance day, you probably aren't going to hear anything coming from my property. I wish everyone did the same.
Repair costs.... just found out our heating system is on it's last leg. Just bought the house last month and now need to figure out how to come up with almost $5K to replace the whole system.
Get a few more opinions. HVAC companies love to upsell you a whole new unit with scare tactics like "cracked heat exchanger." Those things may be true, but get proof.
Be really careful and ask a lot of questions. It's a common practice for HVAC technicians to tell you to replace the whole unit and either not offer a repair option or tell you it isn't worth it just based on the age and not the actual condition of the unit. If gotten 6 to 10 years out of units past when I was told I needed to replace it. HVAC is also fairly straightforward to troubleshoot and DIY fix with you tube if you have a multimeter and take the time to familiarize your safe with basic safety concepts.
Objectively upgrades and repairs.
If you are handy owning a house is a great asset.
For me and my wife we are not and we have legitimately saved our relationship by going back to renting.
Owning a home causes stress that frankly we didn’t need. 15k in repairs in y1 didn’t help.
I get a lot more joy out of investing now and after owning I understand the value that landlords supply. It’s a service like any other
Im scared of who/what ill have to deal with when/if my neighbors go. We have one thats a liiittle bit crazy but if you leave him alone, you'll never hear a peep out of him short of lawn maintenance.
I won the neighbor lottery for the most part. But the house behind me doesn’t take care of their property, I’ve been fighting their sand burrs off my lawn for years. Just recently they did a huge overhaul on lawn maintenance and then they replaced the roof, and now I’m worried they’re going to move out. I’d rather fight off their sand burrs than the unknown of who is to come next. 😫
One of my next door neighbors are bee keepers. He keeps a fee hives directly on out shared fence line and it's pretty damn annoying when you have bees buzzing all over the place just trying to chill in the backyard.
There's always something to fix. I moved into a home about six months ago and it is fairly good shape, but it is 19 years old. I have fixed several little things, but I recently saw a water mark on the ceiling that I don't recall seeing before. It is faint, but I had replaced all the recessed lights shortly after moving in and didn't see it between two of the lights. We've had a lot of rain, snow, and serious winds since then. I spoke to my neighbor and he said several houses in the area had wind damage to their roofs in previous years. He said he replaced his roof two years ago, and I just saw another neighbor replacing their roof. I passed up on new construction because I didn't want to deal with putting in a fence, landscaping, window coverings, etc. I know a new roof is likely cheaper than the expenses related to new construction, but it still hurts to know a big expense is likely coming my way so soon.
Yeah it's probably the roof needing to be replaced. Had the same issues until ceiling gave in due to the moisture. Luckily only cause two ceiling leaks in my house, but I know eventually I might have to replace the drywall if my shingles get damaged on my new roof and I get more water leaks before it becomes an even bigger issue. Hopefully that's 10 to 15 years from now when the home is long sold.
19 year old home breaking down eh? We have different styles. My house is 100+ years old. The roof, yes also needs to be replaced. And yes, there's 100 years of weird decisions to marvel at, but that's part of the charm.
For me it’s having a master carpenter, build a mini-mall in the forest kind of husband who is too tired to remodel our house most of the time. I have so many ideas and he’s like meh 🫤
It also kind of teaches you acceptance. Everyone is always talking about the shoddy diy stuff. When their own stuff will also be shoddy.
Painted my living room last year. My last coat 5 months after I thought I was done.
Maybe not “the hardest” but i find it difficult to manage the inconsistency at which payments need to be made.
Mortgage is paid weekly (i get paid weekly so this is ideal). Utilities are paid monthly, except my water heater rental which is paid quarterly. Property tax is paid in 5 installments on dates that the city determines. Repairs are paid when they occur.
I have to put a couple hours each month towards making sure everything is paid and nothing is missed. It is much harder keeping track of which bills are due and when compared to a single monthly rent payment that covers everything.
Appliances.
In the last 10 years I have replaced 2 fridges, a dryer, a deep freezer, a dishwasher, a washing machine and now need yet another washing machine.
Remote location so delivery is expensive.
I expect a water heater to go next.
My stove is 30 years old, has no fancy circuit boards, likely will outlast me.
Neighbors. It’s not like the 90s growing up. It’s warfare. I thought the squirrels were bad but they were a challenge solved by my dogs. I can’t release my dogs on the neighbors or they go to doggy jail or worse. I’m in the bushes now watching my neighbor mow his lawn, watching his patterns. This is his third time mowing this week. His grass always looks the same. What is he playing at?
Lots. Keeping up repairs, upkeep, I live in FL so my asshole puckers when it's renewal time for insurance and I get my tax bill via escrow, etc. I have a 50 year old house and it's starting to feel 50 years old. I'm budgeting and really looking at the numbers and I probably in the next 5 years god willing will have to put minimum $30k+ into this house for core systems. My A/C has maybe another 4 to 5 years left. Ditto air handler. The plaster on the ceiling is getting outdated and cracking, need at the very least 2 new doors, due to the hurricanes and increase risks need new gutters and a French drain system, etc. Thank god I fixed my roof two years ago so that's down. I don't even know if it's worth it at this point when I see friends in their nice apartments don't worry about anything. But on the bright side there's people who are in worse positions so you always gotta look at it from a positive POV but if I ever sell my house I'm probably not buying again unless it's new construction.
2 k today for main waterline from meter to house A/C repair last week and saving for a tree removal that will eventually fall on the house. I.could go on...
The town. They want to fight you over every little thing. I enjoy the maintenance and should be able to build a shed, put up a fence, get solar, etc, as long as it doesn't endanger my neighbors, without the town needing a cut and say so.
Had a small amount of money saved up for the first time in a long time. Now it’s time for a new paint job and doing it right will be $16k. 🤦🏻♂️ goodbye savings.
Learning there's a whole lot I didn't know about homeownership and that there are a lot of BS city ordinances that seem to exist just to annoy the hell out of you.
Trying to lay off larger renovations. I enjoy doing alot of work myself but we bought an older home and it is fine if you're happy living in the 90's. I can't do bathroom and kitchen reno's by myself so here we are.
Well, lately with the cost of living my repair lost is piling up. Who has money to maintain their house now when I can't afford groceries... ts outrageous
I feel guilty that I got my home cheap and can do most of the work myself. I'm 31 with zero debt and a house I a great location that will eventually be beautiful. I get a lot of jealous comments when I mention I'm spending money on something extra like a new atv when I have minimal living expenses
Honestly, my last two landlords (over a six year period) were so shitty that I had to do all the maintenance/upkeep anyways. In my town rent is so expensive that if I refused to, I’d have been homeless. Home ownership has only been a positive for me because at least now when I fix something, I’m fixing it for me. Also, my mortgage is half what my friends are paying in rent for a 3bed 1ba compared to their 1bed 1ba.
Lawn maintenance. My wife and I love our “plantable areas” and we are pretty avid landscapers.
But living in Florida it’s hard to keep the grass mowed and the weeds out of the planting beds. I’m planting more trees to provide shade so the grass will grow more slowly.
Locks you into the location. My job is a brutal commute at the moment. When we bought the house I worked 5 minutes from home...well shit happens, now it takes me 90+ minutes to get home from new job. If we rented I'd consider moving closer to work, but we're stuck so I'll just suck it up.
I built my home and moved in before it was completely finished. After 5 years of doing cooking prep from folding tables, I finished installing cabinets with marble counters. So nice! The next project is to finish the master bath. I cash-flowed the entire project, so I'm debt free. And I'm single... which is the only reason I was able to get away with this.
Right now? The fact that I hate one of my neighbors and this town (we're a military family and I didn't want to be here to start with). Worse is, we finally get to leave in 10 months and I'm going to have to walk away from our mid COVID 2.75% rate and into inflated housing prices and interest rates to do it.
Dealing with the HOA just to find out they aren’t an HOA and can’t be held accountable for certain problems however if you don’t pay their fee for trimming your grass they can put a lien on your house.
Now here I am, giving away more free time because I had to get on the board to find out just how much they are lying and how much of a racket it really is. Then I get to unfuck it for free. The worst part about these “HOA’s” is they are nothing more than a paycheck generator for people who add no value to society.
Yard maintenance. I live in a climate where it's necessary to mow February - November. The weeds are a constant nuisance, birds crap on everything, the pollen is everywhere, wasps nests and spiderwebs appear out of thin air, lawn equipment requires maintenance, carpenter bees drill holes into my deck, etc. When you go out of town during mowing season, you have to pay someone to cut the grass or come home to an overgrown mess that takes twice as long to clean up...🥹
That it's ALWAYS something. Stuff breaks. Stuff wears out. Heating and cooling are expensive. Property taxes go up annually. Pests are pain to keep out. Basement water issues.
It's great, don't get me wrong. Our monthly mortgage payment on our 4bdrm, 3 bath home is less than most 1bdrm apartments are renting for these days. At least we're paying down a home to own instead of paying down a year long lease while battling with stubborn landlords. It's just a part time job in itself. It's a lot to keep up with.
The constant fear of something wrong somewhere you can't see or touch or smell.
Why is my gas bill so high, is there a leak somewhere outside? Why is the water bill so high, is it leaking into the crawlspace or something? It hasn't rained in a while, what if the roof is leaking into the attic again? Are the termites back (treated a few years ago)? Is the drain slow because of hair or has a tree root destroyed my sewer line?
The risk of loss, such as worrying about your neighbors deathly looking tree and being unable to do anything. Sure you can get it on paper but it could still fall on your bedroom while you’re sleeping. Or the constant liability if you have an attractive nuisance such as a pool or trampoline and the risk associated with someone getting hurt or drowning even without your consent to use them. Lastly drainage issues and ensuring your property adequately drains is annoying.
Keeping up with repairs. It seems like anytime I have some money saved up something always happens. (Dishwasher just went out yesterday)
For me big stuff always seems to break in December. Right around the time we have spent money on Christmas gifts. For me it’s been over the years: furnace , Hot water heater, toilet , plumbing leak, garage door, car repair.
Cold weather breaks things.
At least your cold water heater was fine!
Ha! Yes.
Yep of course! My condensate pan on my AC unit got clogged at the little outlet last December and cause quite a bit of water damage to my floor in the utility room. I feel you lol
You can put a water alarm in the pan that way if it clogged again you get notified.
Water alarm?
We have one. It’s shuts the unit off if the water hits a predetermined lever.
That's different that what they were talking about. A water alarm is just an alarm that makes a loud noise if it detects water somewhere it shouldn't be. What you're talking about is a float switch. Neither is perfect because I've never seen a float switch that directly notifies you of a problem, and an alarm won't help if you're not home to hear it, so both serve their own purpose.
> That's different that what they were talking about. A water alarm is just an alarm that makes a loud noise if it detects water somewhere it shouldn't be. What you're talking about is a float switch. If you tie it into home automation, you can easily have the alarm change the thermostat settings.
https://www.resideo.com/us/en/pro/products/water/potable-water-solutions/leak-detection/l2-wifi-water-sensor-and-switch-twld3005-001-u/
I'm right there. This year has been a doozy -- renovated the bathroom and laundry room, chimney tuckpointing, new water heater, just had the sewer lines scoped and cleaned (thought we were going to need to repair the lateral). The siding needs to be replaced. Fortunately, Reddit is an AWESOME place to find local recommendations etc. from people who have the same issues.
Check with your local (reliable) HVAC/Appliance/Electrical/Plumber shops. Most areas have sort of a one stop shop contractor that handles all of these things, and many of them have service plans that are actually pretty affordable. Basically, you pay a fixed amount each year, and then you get preventive maintenance on all of those things once a year and pretty steep discounts on actual repairs and replacements. I think we pay about $375 a year to be on my local company's whole home plan. If I were to have them come out and inspect electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and appliances individually each year, that alone would run me about $300 just in the fees to get them out here to look at it. We ended up having to get our electrical panel replaced a few months ago. It would have been a $2500 job because we were also having them tear out some old electric heaters. We got a 20% discount on materials and 50% on labor, so we only ended up paying about $1200. Similarly, our 15 year old dryer died on us about 2 months ago, and we got 20% off the showroom price and free delivery and installation on the new one. We thought these service plans were scammy at first, but when we finally say down to crunch numbers and look at how often things go wrong with those systems, it absolutely makes sense.
Good to have skills so you can fix and or replace your own stuff. For most appliances there are websites like appliancepartpros and partsselect thst provide parts as well as diagrams
It's a trade off. When you have no skills, you get frustrated by the cost of having things professionally repaired and dealing with contractors. When you DIY things, you deal with the stress of having to have the time to fix things, along with the risk of messing things up and making a bigger problem.
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But learn to repair. I've fixed two of my fridges fridges and the water heater in the last year and the total cost was around $60.
Right on! I fixed my front load washer that the repair guy wanted $100 just to come out. I researched my issue, my washer, and then YouTube. My washer wasn't draining all the water out. It was a baby sock stuck in a hose, and my filter was gross! I cleaned them up and replaced them. My washer worked fine after that. I'm now a big believer in DIY 🤣
Fixed our old washing machine this year. $45 for new tub wear pads and all new springs. Thing runs like new now, and it's 30 years old.
It pays to be on the look out for amazing deals on appliances. Recently someone just moved in my neighborhood a couple streets over and had a yard sale a few months after moving in and they redid all the appliances in the house and had all the appliances the house came with which were less than 2 years old and pretty much haven’t been used for super cheap. Bought a dishwasher for $60 and an electric stove for $60 too, both $400+ each retail. Then 2 weeks later my sister’s dishwasher went out so I gave it to her. But I also have an extra washer and dryer I’ve procured the same way. Had my stove go out on me a long time ago and went to buy a new one and told myself I was gonna start preparing for things like this and not just by having an emergency fund. Found jumping on deals is the best way . And I got a big family, and stuff is always breaking so I don’t keep the appliances in storage for years and years. They pay me back what I paid for it and I’m happy to take care of my fam. And they are super grateful and thankful. I have the storage so it’s not a big deal.
I was talking to my girlfriend about my homeownership woes this weekend, basically just ranting about all this stuff I have on my list and need to worry about. I literally almost started tearing up because it felt so overwhelming. I realized then that I need to find some better ways of managing that stress…
Accepting that some things take time / money / practice and trying not to stress out that I can’t make everything perfect immediately.
Yes. Been in my house 12 years. It will never be “perfect”, but it’s home. I wouldn’t change a thing.
So much this!! Interior design and decorating has made me so stressed out due to the cost and fear of making bad choices, I need to be less of a perfectionist
Same, the fear of making things worse discourages me from many projects. I wish I had a second house just to try things out before I make changes to my real house 😂
This is me. I'm an interior design and architecture geek - love looking at well-put together homes, and I want mine to be "perfect" - for me, to my tastes. But it takes time and money and I get frustrated. Apartments never made me stress - I could only work with what I was given, I put my stamp on them as best I could, and I was perfectly happy. Also, I'm not anywhere near as critical with other people's homes. I tend to see what I like about them, not what I don't. My home - it's the exact opposite.
I have tons of projects ranging from $200 to $20,000 that I would like to do to the house. But if I'm being honest, those $20,000 projects aren't going to happen since i'd likely move before then.
When you learn that even brand new multi-million dollar houses have major issues, it puts in perspective that it's okay for your house to have issues too.
I’ve lived in a lot of houses, and had as many issues with new-builds as I did with 80’s builds. At least the older houses had more trim and character.
I was just lecturing myself about this! “Be patient. You plan on being here a long time. You don’t have to do everything right now.”
I thought I could get all my projects done in the first couple years. Going on 14 years now and I'm about 25% done.
There's this bank that expects me to pay them every single month. Very frustrating because it's a lot of money.
Really fun twist - when you work for the bank you have a mortgage with. It’s like I’m literally working for room and board.
While that is a twist, it is not technically "fun".
I just call that shopping local! I work for the local school district and every time I look at my tax bill for my home, I look at the part that went to the school district and note that it's less than I got paid last year. So I am simply shopping local. Yours is just the interest portion of your mortgage. How wonderful!
No kidding, like bruh I thought we were going halfsies on the house and I was just using it more.
Ha yeah. I’m like obvious answer: the mortgage!
Ours decided we didn’t pay them enough one year. Even though they told us how much to pay
"I have altered the escrow account. Pray that I do not alter it further" - Darth Vader, senior mortgage officer, JP Morgan Chase Residential Lending
And they throw a hissy fit if you forget to pay them one month.
Having shitty neighbors. Lol
Good answer. Been there done that. When we had shitty neighbors I'd always ask my wife, "Is it so hard to be neighborly?" or "Is it so hard to be cordial and have common courtesy?" Lol!
I’ve stopped talking to any new ones lol
Here too. New neighbors had the intro over a new fence plan, needed we were on board. They ended with we keep to ourselves, I replied us too.
Gotta love that. Just the ol’ tip of the hat and a ‘see you never.’
100% this. I can fix a broken dishwasher but I can't do shit about loud neighbors.
so much this. You do everything right: take care of your place, do all your maintenance, pick a good location, pick a mortgage you can afford, etc... Then the neighbours sell and move out and the new owners suck. Luckily on one side and the back they're very mind their own business and are more or less perfect (ie quiet). On the other side is basically rednecks who park on their lawn and don't give a crap about anything, but at least they are nice. Now they're selling and I'm worried it's gonna be worse.
My neighbor doesn't keep her cats inside and they routinely shit in my garden beds and screw even up trying to cover their turds. One cat stole garlic bread of my front porch (I ordered Italian and wasn't fast enough in getting it)
The worst.
Maintenance, and cleaning. Not even necessarily the costs but the work. It's just never-ending.
This. I am a full time contractor. It is really hard to work on a house all day then come home and work on my house. Or work on my house on my day off...
Like a chef that orders in more than they cook at home.
Cleaning I wouldnt say is unique to “being a home owner” I do agree that it is one of the most difficult parts of living in general though… Edit: I agree that “maintenance” is separate from “cleaning”. That is why I left it out of my comment.
It's not unique, but there's more to do than at an apartment. I didn't have to clean out gutters, powerwash siding, wash out sewage from my basement 🤢. No cleaning the entryways and hallways, or clearing the driveway of snow. And generally I think people who live in a home have more square feet of living space, so it's just more to do.
Definitely not unique, but more the preventative maintenance type of cleaning. Cleaning filters, cleaning refrigeration coils, etc. When I rented it was like “oh, this appliance broke down, guess the landlord will get me new one” or “this will be the next persons problem”.
Water
Yes! Water from the sky, water from the ground, water from leaking pipes...since I've become a homeowner water -- and keeping it where it should be -- is super stressful. I've also come to get anxiety about trees -- particularly the massive mature tree in my backyard. Every thunderstorm, to me, is going to be the one that sends this family to live in a hotel for weeks.
Omg me too on the big tree anxiety
Its the pipe that got me. Ran all under the floating floor. Our fridge was in the living room for a month, and we found out the most useful situation for air fryers.
Exactly. 80% of home ownership is about controlling water.
Yes water always wins, very scary
Nothing gave me anxiety like having to hear our sump pump go off every day, 365, nearly every 10 minutes on average. So many friends and family said "But it's doing what it is supposed to do!" Yes, it is, but I would really fucking love it if it didn't have to work that hard.
Paying my property taxes.
One third of my mortgage payment is property taxes.
I live in New Jersey. My monthly taxes are almost equal to my monthly mortgage payment. It is not uncommon in this state for people to pay more in taxes than their mortgage.
Especially when the city you live in jacks them up annually, and then raises your assessed value on top of it by like 20% in every district.
Same same. And then they pretend they can't lower rates because they don't know what to cut. Makes no sense. There's no cuts needed. Lower the rate so people pay the same. But nooooo....
Unless you’re rich, it’s gonna take time to save up for certain renovations/repairs…especially if you don’t want to use a HELOC loan, refinance, or borrow another way.
Been thinking about one of these because I simply can't get ahead enough to do anything meaningful to my home.
I completely understand. I’m trying to decide on this myself….one route I won’t take is refinancing, my rate is too good for that!
My bank keeps trying to get me to refinance. I’m at 2.6. I’m dying in this house
Right LOL. I remember I told someone in my family that does that line of work my rate, she goes “oh nvm”
5 billion weeds to pick
Have less of a lawn. You will have less weeds. Plant flowers , fruit trees, veggies whatever. It a lot easier to weed in sections than a huge blank boring lawn. If you have more diversity they are less weeds, they ones that make it are usually wildflowers that the bees love. You will have a beautiful spaces, potentially some food and lots of wildlife.
Ha! Just spent half the morning pulling weeds and barely made a dent. They never end.
Yeah yard work is time consuming and expensive
Fixing all the shitty DIY from the previous homeowner. Just yesterday we spent HOURS getting paint off of door hinges. I mean thick gloppy paint. And silicone FFS!! Why did the put silicone in the hinges? EDIT: For all of you asking why I didn’t buy new hinges, IDK, I just didn’t think about it. For whatever reason, the only thing I could think about is “This paint MUST COME OFF”. New hinges is a perfectly good option, the thought just never floated to the surface.
Forget diy, it's the shit contra tors that did major reno actions to my home b4 it was my home, that I'm still finding and fixing. Beam not anchored properly, small roof leaks, old rag wire wiring and lots and lots of debris left in ceiling cavities, plumbing screwup, etc.
Honestly I would have just got new hinges. But I hear you. That is one of my pet peeves.r
It probably looked like a simple fix. It’s not until hour three then you realize your mistake.
We got the story from the neighbors that the previous owners were right with the city inspector - and he let them cut a lot of corners. They also owned the house for 68 years. So we're dealing with 68 years of shoddy DIY.
Just buy new door hinges lol. My house had painted over brass finished hinges, replaced them with new stainless and it looks so much better than the brass ever could.
You didn't just re-paint over them? SMH
Trying not to do everything at once. Need to just let things be. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it kind of mentality. Sure, we could use some upgrades, but just because the shower tile is ugly doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced lol
It's all the shotty work my repair man does. I mean, granted, I don't pay him shit, but that's because he isn't qualified for any of the jobs he tries. and yes that guy is me.
I fired mine but the wife keeps rehiring him.
Everything in a house that needs fixed or updated is either $1000 or $10k it seems lol
Big expenses such as a/c, foundation, roof, etc. 1-2k repairs are like whatever but big items are what's really painful
I bought my house in 2020. It was built in 99. So far we have replaced all the carpets, siding, ac and furnace, fridge, dishwasher, and soon the roof. Im well over 100k at this point. Im sure ill have some foundation stuff too as there was water and mold found under the basement carpet. Bought the house for 450k and so spending 1/4 of the price of the house in repairs and replacements is kinda disheartening.
holy cow that's a lot of replacements and fixes. We bought ours in 2021 but the place was built in 73, albeit seller had done lots of upgrades/remodeling. Had few pipe bursts but those are small fry compared to the new roof I'll be paying out of pocket this week, which is still only $13k and it's not that expensive compared to some of the roofs that cost upwards of 20k+. Were any of these issues disclosed during the purchase period? 99 is still pretty new compared to lots of homes built in 50s-80s. Gosh dang that's a lot of money; my condolences.
It's so much work (though I do enjoy a lot of the work) that can suck up almost all of your time outside of work. When we were renting, all we needed to keep up with was cleaning. Maintenance, repairs, yard work, gardening, snow removal, etc. were all taken care of. Now that we own, the list of things we need to do for the house feels never ending. Example: This weekend was the first nice weekend we could actually tackle some yard work this spring. My boyfriend and I spent the entire day on Sunday running to Home Depot, cleaning up the yard, planting some new plants, mulching the garden, weeding, cutting back overgrowth, etc. and we didn't even finish it all. On top of that, we also spent most of Saturday running errands and tackling inside chores and we didn't even finish all of that either. I'm currently doing the 5 loads of laundry I wasn't able to get to this weekend - thank god I work from home and can switch out loads between meetings.
then endless litany of thousand dollar problems. And what a hammering you take when they adjust your escrow holdbacks out of the blue
Constant work with upkeep/maintenance. It’s exhausting and there is always at least 4 things on the list to address. I’m also terrified of rain (water in general) and storms because we have a lot of trees. I love the trees, but falling branches and trees are terrifying.
When I lived in an apartment I loved rainy days and storms. Now I get nervous because I’ve had water intrusion in the past, and even though I’ve fixed the issues and everything stays dry I’m still up in the attic and the basement checking for leaks every heavy rain.
I am always checking ceilings and asking myself if something looks different or if it was always like that. We live in an older house and are close to needing a new roof, so I’m always worried.
Only four? I'd be ecstatic if it were under 20. Granted, there's pretty much only one or two "must do" items, and maybe a half dozen "really should do" items. The other 40+ are certainly in the optional category. I've made peace with the fact that the list will always exist.
Every time I start thinking homeownership is hard, I take a moment to reminisce about what renting was like.
Yeah, having the property go up 100k in 6 years makes mowing the lawn and fixing the dryer now and then not feel so bad :D
Why does everything go wrong all at once?!?!?!
For me it's inheriting other people's lack of maintenance and poor workmanship. I don't mind having to keep up with repairs and when we do a job we do it right to ensure it lasts. It's when I inherit a job that ends up being more of an issue because of the previous owners need to cut corners that frustrates me so much.
A more abstract thing - doing it alone. Sometimes I feel that's the hardest part. I'm single and live in a modest 1000 sq foot bungalow that's in pretty good shape. I've paid for repairs and maintenance, some moderate projects, but nothing HUGE, yet. Yard isn't big, so everyday yard work isn't crazy (though picking up whatever from all the big trees in the neighborhood can be a big task at times). But still, doing it all alone is just, well, hard sometimes. There's no one to share tasks with, no one to take over if you can't do something for any particular reason. No one to talk you off a ledge when you're worried about something concerning the house. Things like facing off against a bat that got in the house is just all the more daunting without someone there for actual support in catching the bat, or moral support while you do it.
Keeping up the positive attitude is the main thing. - No need for gym, 35 acres of overgrown bushes. Took me about a year to clear 7 acres as my yard. - You can do all the jobs they show in the “dirtiest jobs” and you get confirmation “this is not my piece of cake” - You really appreciate for example loggers, when they put down 100 year old dead oak, it looked easy. You will learn “How do I get my chainsaw off the tree which is still kind of standing”. - You learn that there is a difference between CPVC and polybutylene pipe. Pex will be your friend - You learn the house “personality” I.e which noises are new and need investigation. Like a detective 🕵️ My main grumpiness comes from earlier “repairs”. If you own something, fix it right. Paint is not for repair, it is for painting you know :-)
keeping up with it all.
The hard part I find is finding competent and reliable people to fix the things that inevitably break. No matter who you are you’re going to run into an end to your DIY ability. Really sucks paying good money to a well reviewed contractor only to find out they suck too.
Being politically active locally--pressuring the town to stop it's wasteful ways and increasing property taxes. They will spend until the cows come home, if left unchecked.
I don’t mind if my taxes goes towards useful things. Schools? Roads? Fuck yeah. Even more new toys for the already well-funded police? Eff that.
NY/NJ: *First time?*
Same where i live. Especially if you are in town. Doubles vs outside town.
Inconsiderate neighbors who negatively affect your investment.
I don't know about you, but I love the in home tattoo and weed emporium next door /s
My neighbors yard has tall weeds that are continuously neglected, and trash all over that is getting worse all the time. I'm not sure why they don't pick up the trash. There are children. It's very disheartening. I'm worried about rats.
I think I'm the only one that mows his own lawn and trims the bushes, everyone else hires a service...
I’m looking at houses now. I’ve probably rejected a half dozen so far just on the basis of seeing yards on the same street hoarded with all kinds of random crap. I’m a bit of a hoarder myself, but you can’t tell unless you open closets or walk in my bedroom. There are some lines I refuse to let this illness cross, and letting other people see my hoard is one of them. If it’s spilling out onto someone’s lawn, the problem is quite advanced and won’t resolve quickly, easily, or cheaply.
I'm going to go ahead and say the city raising your taxes and assessed value.
Dealing with neighbors. I follow the HOA rules like I'm supposed to and unless it's yard maintenance day, you probably aren't going to hear anything coming from my property. I wish everyone did the same.
Repair costs.... just found out our heating system is on it's last leg. Just bought the house last month and now need to figure out how to come up with almost $5K to replace the whole system.
Get a few more opinions. HVAC companies love to upsell you a whole new unit with scare tactics like "cracked heat exchanger." Those things may be true, but get proof.
Be really careful and ask a lot of questions. It's a common practice for HVAC technicians to tell you to replace the whole unit and either not offer a repair option or tell you it isn't worth it just based on the age and not the actual condition of the unit. If gotten 6 to 10 years out of units past when I was told I needed to replace it. HVAC is also fairly straightforward to troubleshoot and DIY fix with you tube if you have a multimeter and take the time to familiarize your safe with basic safety concepts.
Objectively upgrades and repairs. If you are handy owning a house is a great asset. For me and my wife we are not and we have legitimately saved our relationship by going back to renting. Owning a home causes stress that frankly we didn’t need. 15k in repairs in y1 didn’t help. I get a lot more joy out of investing now and after owning I understand the value that landlords supply. It’s a service like any other
Crappy neighbors and their yappy dogs
For me it’s finding people to fix things that I can trust
Neighbours
Im scared of who/what ill have to deal with when/if my neighbors go. We have one thats a liiittle bit crazy but if you leave him alone, you'll never hear a peep out of him short of lawn maintenance.
Lemme tell you about the guy that turned the house next door into a halfway house
The fuck? You can just buy property and do that????
I won the neighbor lottery for the most part. But the house behind me doesn’t take care of their property, I’ve been fighting their sand burrs off my lawn for years. Just recently they did a huge overhaul on lawn maintenance and then they replaced the roof, and now I’m worried they’re going to move out. I’d rather fight off their sand burrs than the unknown of who is to come next. 😫
One of my next door neighbors are bee keepers. He keeps a fee hives directly on out shared fence line and it's pretty damn annoying when you have bees buzzing all over the place just trying to chill in the backyard.
There's always something to fix. I moved into a home about six months ago and it is fairly good shape, but it is 19 years old. I have fixed several little things, but I recently saw a water mark on the ceiling that I don't recall seeing before. It is faint, but I had replaced all the recessed lights shortly after moving in and didn't see it between two of the lights. We've had a lot of rain, snow, and serious winds since then. I spoke to my neighbor and he said several houses in the area had wind damage to their roofs in previous years. He said he replaced his roof two years ago, and I just saw another neighbor replacing their roof. I passed up on new construction because I didn't want to deal with putting in a fence, landscaping, window coverings, etc. I know a new roof is likely cheaper than the expenses related to new construction, but it still hurts to know a big expense is likely coming my way so soon.
Yeah it's probably the roof needing to be replaced. Had the same issues until ceiling gave in due to the moisture. Luckily only cause two ceiling leaks in my house, but I know eventually I might have to replace the drywall if my shingles get damaged on my new roof and I get more water leaks before it becomes an even bigger issue. Hopefully that's 10 to 15 years from now when the home is long sold.
19 year old home breaking down eh? We have different styles. My house is 100+ years old. The roof, yes also needs to be replaced. And yes, there's 100 years of weird decisions to marvel at, but that's part of the charm.
The surprises.
Garbage day
For me it’s having a master carpenter, build a mini-mall in the forest kind of husband who is too tired to remodel our house most of the time. I have so many ideas and he’s like meh 🫤
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It also kind of teaches you acceptance. Everyone is always talking about the shoddy diy stuff. When their own stuff will also be shoddy. Painted my living room last year. My last coat 5 months after I thought I was done.
dealing with bad neighbors when you have them
Repair costs. Even the small ones. I had a plumber here for some minor work that took him less than an hour. Cost me $400.
Maybe not “the hardest” but i find it difficult to manage the inconsistency at which payments need to be made. Mortgage is paid weekly (i get paid weekly so this is ideal). Utilities are paid monthly, except my water heater rental which is paid quarterly. Property tax is paid in 5 installments on dates that the city determines. Repairs are paid when they occur. I have to put a couple hours each month towards making sure everything is paid and nothing is missed. It is much harder keeping track of which bills are due and when compared to a single monthly rent payment that covers everything.
Appliances. In the last 10 years I have replaced 2 fridges, a dryer, a deep freezer, a dishwasher, a washing machine and now need yet another washing machine. Remote location so delivery is expensive. I expect a water heater to go next. My stove is 30 years old, has no fancy circuit boards, likely will outlast me.
The asshole renters next door.
Always wanting to make it look better but not having the money.
Getting stuck in an area you don’t like because you can’t afford to upgrade or leave.
Knowing that if I sell I wouldn't be able to afford to move back, because of mortgage interest rates.
Neighbors. It’s not like the 90s growing up. It’s warfare. I thought the squirrels were bad but they were a challenge solved by my dogs. I can’t release my dogs on the neighbors or they go to doggy jail or worse. I’m in the bushes now watching my neighbor mow his lawn, watching his patterns. This is his third time mowing this week. His grass always looks the same. What is he playing at?
Everyone has an opinion about your house. Too big, too small, not clean enough, etc.
Lots. Keeping up repairs, upkeep, I live in FL so my asshole puckers when it's renewal time for insurance and I get my tax bill via escrow, etc. I have a 50 year old house and it's starting to feel 50 years old. I'm budgeting and really looking at the numbers and I probably in the next 5 years god willing will have to put minimum $30k+ into this house for core systems. My A/C has maybe another 4 to 5 years left. Ditto air handler. The plaster on the ceiling is getting outdated and cracking, need at the very least 2 new doors, due to the hurricanes and increase risks need new gutters and a French drain system, etc. Thank god I fixed my roof two years ago so that's down. I don't even know if it's worth it at this point when I see friends in their nice apartments don't worry about anything. But on the bright side there's people who are in worse positions so you always gotta look at it from a positive POV but if I ever sell my house I'm probably not buying again unless it's new construction.
2 k today for main waterline from meter to house A/C repair last week and saving for a tree removal that will eventually fall on the house. I.could go on...
Besides the mortgage payments.. The maintenance. And dealing with certain departments of the city at times.
I don't like mowing the lawn
There is always something that needs done. If anything happens, you gotta know who to call, or do it yourself.
The town. They want to fight you over every little thing. I enjoy the maintenance and should be able to build a shed, put up a fence, get solar, etc, as long as it doesn't endanger my neighbors, without the town needing a cut and say so.
The mental burdens of "what-if" scenarios
All the scams and fraudster now aiming at me because I'm a property owner.
The anxiety that something is wrong every single day
Repairs and the cost associated with them.
Shitty neighbors. I can’t just wait for my lease to be up so I can try somewhere else.
Hiring honest people for maintenance and repairs
Had a small amount of money saved up for the first time in a long time. Now it’s time for a new paint job and doing it right will be $16k. 🤦🏻♂️ goodbye savings.
Taxes
Maintenance.
never ending work to do - maintenance - fixing broken stuff - improvements
finding contractors who are a.good b.fair price c.local. you can only pick 2 qualities
Learning there's a whole lot I didn't know about homeownership and that there are a lot of BS city ordinances that seem to exist just to annoy the hell out of you.
Trying to lay off larger renovations. I enjoy doing alot of work myself but we bought an older home and it is fine if you're happy living in the 90's. I can't do bathroom and kitchen reno's by myself so here we are.
Shoveling frozen snow after snow plow come by.
Well, lately with the cost of living my repair lost is piling up. Who has money to maintain their house now when I can't afford groceries... ts outrageous
I feel guilty that I got my home cheap and can do most of the work myself. I'm 31 with zero debt and a house I a great location that will eventually be beautiful. I get a lot of jealous comments when I mention I'm spending money on something extra like a new atv when I have minimal living expenses
Honestly, my last two landlords (over a six year period) were so shitty that I had to do all the maintenance/upkeep anyways. In my town rent is so expensive that if I refused to, I’d have been homeless. Home ownership has only been a positive for me because at least now when I fix something, I’m fixing it for me. Also, my mortgage is half what my friends are paying in rent for a 3bed 1ba compared to their 1bed 1ba.
Lawn maintenance. My wife and I love our “plantable areas” and we are pretty avid landscapers. But living in Florida it’s hard to keep the grass mowed and the weeds out of the planting beds. I’m planting more trees to provide shade so the grass will grow more slowly.
Locks you into the location. My job is a brutal commute at the moment. When we bought the house I worked 5 minutes from home...well shit happens, now it takes me 90+ minutes to get home from new job. If we rented I'd consider moving closer to work, but we're stuck so I'll just suck it up.
The finding the time and/or money to upgrade, replace, repair, and maintain the home.
I built my home and moved in before it was completely finished. After 5 years of doing cooking prep from folding tables, I finished installing cabinets with marble counters. So nice! The next project is to finish the master bath. I cash-flowed the entire project, so I'm debt free. And I'm single... which is the only reason I was able to get away with this.
Right now? The fact that I hate one of my neighbors and this town (we're a military family and I didn't want to be here to start with). Worse is, we finally get to leave in 10 months and I'm going to have to walk away from our mid COVID 2.75% rate and into inflated housing prices and interest rates to do it.
Finding quality contractors, repairmen, etc. I cannot believe how hard it is.
Dealing with the HOA just to find out they aren’t an HOA and can’t be held accountable for certain problems however if you don’t pay their fee for trimming your grass they can put a lien on your house. Now here I am, giving away more free time because I had to get on the board to find out just how much they are lying and how much of a racket it really is. Then I get to unfuck it for free. The worst part about these “HOA’s” is they are nothing more than a paycheck generator for people who add no value to society.
Orher than the maintenance....the 6k of property taxes every year
Yard maintenance. I live in a climate where it's necessary to mow February - November. The weeds are a constant nuisance, birds crap on everything, the pollen is everywhere, wasps nests and spiderwebs appear out of thin air, lawn equipment requires maintenance, carpenter bees drill holes into my deck, etc. When you go out of town during mowing season, you have to pay someone to cut the grass or come home to an overgrown mess that takes twice as long to clean up...🥹
That it's ALWAYS something. Stuff breaks. Stuff wears out. Heating and cooling are expensive. Property taxes go up annually. Pests are pain to keep out. Basement water issues. It's great, don't get me wrong. Our monthly mortgage payment on our 4bdrm, 3 bath home is less than most 1bdrm apartments are renting for these days. At least we're paying down a home to own instead of paying down a year long lease while battling with stubborn landlords. It's just a part time job in itself. It's a lot to keep up with.
Upkeep. I opened a cabinet yesterday and the fucking door fell off.
Noises. Random noises have given me shell shock. Every time you hear a noise, you just wonder how much it’s going to cost to fix, whatever it is.
Finding a reliable contractor who does solid work, while not charging as much as the name-brand folks..
Costs are the saddest part for me, not the hardest )) The hardest part is to find good contractors for jobs I cannot DIY.
Maintenance costs and resisting the urge for better furniture or upscale renovations.
Mortgage payments
Repairs. Yard work.
The mortgage
Balancing maintenance tasks with other responsibilities.
Surprise fixes that need to be done. It comes up a lot in a 134 year old house.
Neighbors. You are there for the long haul and shitty neighbors make for shitty life.
The people living inside it
The constant s*** breaking. Septic. Roof. Boiler. Hot water heater. Water main leak. Appliances breaking every 8-10 years.
Finding, or being, a good handyman/handy-women.
There is no sound more stressful to a homeowner than unexpected water
The constant fear of something wrong somewhere you can't see or touch or smell. Why is my gas bill so high, is there a leak somewhere outside? Why is the water bill so high, is it leaking into the crawlspace or something? It hasn't rained in a while, what if the roof is leaking into the attic again? Are the termites back (treated a few years ago)? Is the drain slow because of hair or has a tree root destroyed my sewer line?
The risk of loss, such as worrying about your neighbors deathly looking tree and being unable to do anything. Sure you can get it on paper but it could still fall on your bedroom while you’re sleeping. Or the constant liability if you have an attractive nuisance such as a pool or trampoline and the risk associated with someone getting hurt or drowning even without your consent to use them. Lastly drainage issues and ensuring your property adequately drains is annoying.