By Mel Dorman, March 25, 2021
Nobody said owning a home was cheap! But it’s usually a great investment. Paying attention to your maintenance expenses can be very worthwhile over the long term. Here are some tips to help keep your homeowner expenses lower.
Consider your Mortgage
- Refinancing- talk to a trusted loan officer and see whether it would make sense to refinance and drop your mortgage interest rate.
- Review your options. Depending on your goals, you could consider refinancing into a 15 year mortgage, hereby saving you a great deal of interest over the long term.
- Pay half of your monthly mortgage every two weeks. This, also, helps you save on interest.
- Decrease your private mortgage insurance. If you originally had only a small down payment, once you pay down your mortgage principle to 80%, you should be able to drop your mortgage insurance and your payment will instantly go down.
Mind the Utilities
- Lower the thermostat at night and ensure that it’s working properly. Smart thermostats are programmable and you can adjust it depending on your work schedule.
- Shoot for temperatures of no higher than 68 degrees in winter and no lower than 78 in the summer.
- Close the blinds in the summer and weatherproof windows in the winter.
- Make sure the weather-stripping on your doors in intact and in good condition.
Save on Water
- Fix those leaky faucets and install low-flow showerheads.
- Load up your dishwasher fully and let the dishes air-dry.
- Load up your laundry machines for efficiency, instead of multiple small loads.
- Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees.
Taking the time to do a few of these tasks will really help you in the long run and will keep more money in your pockets for those all-too-rare vacations!
Mel Dorman
Broker | OR & WA
She/They
Ten years ago, Melissa was living in a slum in Kolkata, India, helping over 200 women escape sex trafficking by providing alternative work at a social business...
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