9 Surprising Things Homeowners Learn

Buying a home is a milestone achievement, but let’s be real, it comes with its fair share of unexpected discoveries.  From quirky maintenance issues to navigating the wild world of HOA regulations to taxes and neighbors, we share some insights on all the things you never knew you needed to know.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You are listening to the Remax realEstate Insights show, where you get real
talk by real agents, brought toyou by Remas of Southeastern Michigan. Hello
and welcome to another episode of theRemax Real Estate Insights Podcast. Have you
ever been so excited to buy somethingor to get something, and then once
you got it, you realized thatmaybe you didn't know as much about it

(00:22):
as you thought that you did.Well, this could be true for a
lot of things. It can betrue like buying your first car, bringing
home your first pet, for sure, bringing home your first child. There's
things that you do that you don'tknow, but buying a home can kind
of fall in the same category.Buying a home it's some milestone achievement,
but let's be real, it comeswith its fear share of unexpected discoveries,

(00:44):
from maybe some quirky maintenance issues tonavigating the wild world of your homeowners association
regulations. We're here today to spillthe beans on what you never knew you
needed to know when you bought ahouse. My name is Janete Schneider.
I am your host, and whetheryou're a seasoned home owner or just dipping
your toes into the world of realestate. We're here to help you get
a bit more knowledgeable about home ownership. And with me today for this fun

(01:07):
topic is Pam Balonte. She isthe marketing director for Remax of Southeastern Michigan.
Welcome back, Pam, Yeah,thank you for having me. Great
to be here. Great to behere. And as we sit here recording
this, I know these always aira few days later, it's a Clips
day, a Cliffs day. Yeah, So we're trying to get in and
out of the studio and get homeso we can see crazy. Yeah,
exactly, trying to get home.So let me ask you this before we

(01:32):
get started with with kind of thethings that came from a recent survey.
Was there anything that surprised you afteryou baught Yeah, you know, I
mean, actually, you know,if I really think about it, there's
probably you know, many surprises,right. But I was thinking about,
you know, when we bought ourfirst home, because we're coming from an
apartment, and I think one thingthat surprised me was how much we needed

(01:55):
to go and buy in terms oflike equipment. I mean, obviously,
you know you're going from apartment toa house. Now you need the lawnmower,
but it wasn't just like lawnmower.And then it was like, oh,
you know rakes, shovels, youknow, like just or even indoor
stuff, you know, maybe abigger vacuum, just stuff. I just
remember being surprised at how much morewe have to keep purchasing. Every paycheck
there was there was a purchase,right, there was a purchase. Yeah,

(02:17):
yeah, absolutely. I was thinkingabout this because I knew I was
going to ask you the question,and I'm thinking, okay, there is
three things. I came up with, one for each of the house's.
My fourth house that we're in rightnow is too new for me to to
have any opinion yet. Just yet. I have some ideas. But my
first house, the thing that wassurprising to me, it sounds so stupid
now, was that the the aluminums. It was a luminum siding on that

(02:38):
house needed to be washed to stayclean. I guess I just thought rain
took care of that. I don'tknow, right right there, you go,
yeah, yeah, first time homeowner. I agree, I'd probably be
the same. I'm like, didn'trealize that was a thing that needed to
be tended to. Yeah. Thesecond house, and we lived on a
corner and I always loved it atChristmas time, so we had a white

(02:59):
pig fence. The amount of timeit takes to paint a picket fence,
Yeah yeah, okay, I understandTom Sawyer and Hunckleberry fan a whole lot
a better. And after doing thatand then the third house, the thing
that I learned was the amount oftime if you're going to completely re landscape
a yard, and what do youdo with all the dirt you displace?

(03:22):
Oh? Sure, yeah, becausethat house had like a kind of a
taller burmish thing by the front door. I mean it seems like anything that
we dug out you now had extradirt and we couldn't give it away.
I mean we actually had to startpaying people to come take it away.
Yeah. Yeah, lessons learned,Lessons learned. And that's each each one
of your houses. So there isI think you're right, probably per purchase,
per home home, per home purchase, there's going to be something I

(03:45):
like yours, because yours is deadon, especially for first time buyers.
Is you get the house and likeyou're saying, it's not like I mean,
if you've been living on your own, you have some cleaning supplies you
have some things, yes, yes, every everything that you need right right,
all right, So while this listis in no particular order, we're
gonna start with some I think.I think the list ended up being nine
surprising things that homeowners learn maybe oncethey get into their home. And we're

(04:10):
in this one is something that especiallyfirst time owner homeowners may get taken by
surprise. And we've kind of talkedabout it, but it's the amount of
maintenance that a home requires, rightright exactly. Many first time buyers do
seem surprised by the amount of timerequired to keep a home functioning and in
good shape, and also the costof it all and how many times that
you have to keep doing your maintenanceto keep it in the good shape.

(04:34):
So I think probably in this categoryand kind of similar to us that we
were my first house, we're comingfrom an apartment. But you know,
like say people condo people who havebeen condo owners, you know, likely
they had their landscaping, their exteriormaintenance, that type of thing taking care
of them or for them from theho the condo hoag is that they were
planting paying So yeah, I mean, and so it was kind of out

(04:56):
of sight, out of mind,you know, and of course there was
a cost for the but it canappear easy when you're pulling up your house
and someone else is sitting there orwalking and cutting the grass. It seems
like, oh, that doesn't seemit seems easy when you're watching somebody else
do it. Yeah, yeah,exactly, And cutting grass is actually one
of the things that new homeowners mentionedas being a surprise, especially as how

(05:16):
fast it grows, which I think, truthfully sometimes I'm still surprised, and
how fast it grows, like inthe summer months. So and then other
frequently cited items, we're learning whyit is important to clean cutters and you're
clogged grain drains. So I thinkthat maybe some people had some hard lessons
there. So clearly they were notlistening to our annuals Ye Fall Home Maintenance

(05:43):
Tip podcast, because if I'm notwrong, we try to maybe change the
order of things from your to yourBut yes, gutter cleaning is both of
those lists. Yeah, we dotalk about that one a lot, so
I'm with you, I'm with you. New homeowners also reference that even when
you're proactively trying to maintain a home, things happen and the cost can add

(06:04):
up, especially if you need tohire help to fix or maintain something you
know, versus doing some of thatyou know maintenance repair yourself. Well,
I mean, and the amount ofmaintenance required is going to depend entirely on
each home and to some degree somewalk I mean, just like a car
can be a lemon. Yeah,it does seem like every now and then

(06:24):
you have somebody like every time youtalk to him, it's like another appliance
when you know something else ha happened. Yeah, And if you own a
home long enough, if you stayin one place long enough, you're likely
going to experience the time you know, when it seems like one thing after
the other is just reaching that endof a life cycle you know, or
needs a Yeah, I mean thatthat is true, and that's why having
a home inspection before buying a homeis so important, and it can help

(06:47):
you learn if the home has ahistory of good maintenance or there are some
obvious and known issues that you aregoing to need to address. Well,
and if you've been listening, especiallysince maybe January February of this year,
you know you've heard that we've recentlymoved into a new home and the inspection
revealed a variety of maintenance issues.Some you know, some small, you
know, some that's kind of likethat, I think, the common stuff

(07:08):
that they're going to find and pointout, but some are bigger that needed
attention. And you know, armedwith this knowledge, we went back and
we came and asked for a pricereduction because we're like, Okay, we're
willing to tackle these issues, right, but you know, I should expect
that the duck doesn't have a holein it, right, and if I'm

(07:29):
going to have to pay for that, then I'm going to adjust my purchase
price. You know. So firstof all, it helped us with negotiations.
It also helped us understand, youknow, what was going on in
the house and kind of factor inwhat we were walking into. Yeah.
Absolutely, And how great was thatthat you know, you did make sure
that you had that home inspection,especially like you said, the hole in
the duck, Like, could youimagine not knowing that you had that,

(07:50):
I mean, mouse people would seethat. But I mean, on the
other hand of me, you justnever know. I mean, there,
you know, there were some youknow, some other issues, and I
just think this is why we'll alwayssay, no matter how competitive to the
market, you want to protect yourselfand get an inspection done. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, And if youare concerned about unexpected maintenance and repair costs
right after moving in, or ifyou're buying an older home with some data

(08:13):
appliances, you can't consider requesting thesalary to pay for a home warranty coverage,
or you can pay for it yourselfeither way. But while home warranties
don't cover everything, they do typicallycover kitchen appliances, washers, dryers,
heating, air conditioning, electrical systems, you know those type of things.
And you know, new homeowners alsoseemed a bit surprised that home maintenance wasn't

(08:35):
a one and done process but somethingthat is again needs ongoing attention. I
love the optimism that I just yesand move on. Wouldn't that be wouldn't
that be nice? That well,here are a couple of buyer tips done.
You know, from seasonal cleaning ofthe gutter. We kind of talked
about maybe that being a surprise,you know, the annual furnace inspection.

(08:58):
You know, there are some thingshave a seasonality or kind of a rhythm
to them, and for new homeowners, maybe it's helpful to be proactive and
work from a calendar or have amaintenance schedule and stick to it. You
can find a lot of these online, you know, where you can just
got you know, kind of theseasonal checklists. We talk about them every
year. You know, go findone that kind of work from that that'll
kind of kind of help keep you, you know, on track. And

(09:18):
also it's important to have a cashreserve to deal with emergencies. You know,
you may have a quote unquote newerappliance, but if your appliances are
old, or certain parts of yourhome such as the roof, have been
neglected, you know, cost toreplace, cost to repair, depending on
what it is, can be substantial. So you want to know your financial

(09:39):
limits. You know what you're willingto take on, you know what you're
willing to address, and you alwayswant to make sure that you have enough
money in your budget to set someupside so you you know, you can
cover the expected cost you know aregoing to come and those unexpected ones that
just kind of are a surprise partyfor you. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and yeah for me. For us, you know a lot of times
it's been rog doors. You know, we've had to replace several garage doors.

(10:01):
But you know those were. Imean it's been a while, but
I think the last time it wasprobably eight hundred bucks or something, So
I mean the unexpected surprise, right. Oh, and you can't leave your
garage door broken. No, Soyou know, so you know, some
things maybe you can wait a while, but there are certain things, certain
things, I mean certain things youcan I mean, there can be workarounds
to certain things. But then there'sother things that for you know, safety,

(10:24):
health, you know you need toaddress, you know now. And
so you know, we've often saidis you may get approved for a a
loan more than what you were expecting, but you always have to kind of
rein that back in and say,just because I can pay, that doesn't
mean I should Because am I leavinganything as a cushion? And right,
and home repairs and maintenance are definitelysomething that needs needs a cushion. Yes,

(10:46):
all right, So you found yourdream home, you got your mortgage
payment all set, all budgeted for. Oh and then there comes the updated
tax bill. Oh and there's aninsurance premium that came to it here and
usually you know, it feels likea plot twist when you realize, oh,
they're not the same, you know, I knew what I was paying
for the mortgage, but all theseother things they changed and adapt from year

(11:09):
to year. That can be asurprise. Number two, Yes, for
homeowners, I agree. I agree. Most people are getting a mortgage with
a fixed rate, and they dohave a level of comfort knowing the amount
they pay each month for their home. They may think that the amount they
were shown and told that their monthlypayment is going to be will be that
for the rest of their mortgage.But the monthly payment almost always includes property

(11:33):
taxes and property insurance, which themortgage service er collects in an ESCO account
and pays for you. But thosecosts do change over time. They do
now. I mean again, thecaveat would be if you put down more
than twenty percent and maybe you payyour taxes and you pay your insurance on
your own, there's still the surpriseof when the new premium comes or when
the new assessment in the tax billcomes. But for this argument, we're

(11:54):
going to kind of talk about,like you said, yeah, somebody who's
having that you know, taken outof your you know, corporated into your
mortgage payment and then they kind ofhave that in NSCRO and pay it on
your behalf right, and let's behonest. When costs change on just about
anything, they always go up.I mean, I would like to see
them go down, but I can'tsay that I've ever seen that. No,
I mean, and especially when itcomes to things like insurance premiums.

(12:16):
I mean, we just know overtime, the cost I mean, the
cost of cars goes up. Sotherefore, if you have an accident,
it is going to cost more toreplace. Hence your insurance premium goes up.
And that's before you even make anyclaims. That's just normal cost of
doing business. Yeah, and youknow you can plan, I mean,
you should, honestly in your headand in your budget, plan for taxes
and homeowners insurance to go up everyyear. Now you're more likely to notice

(12:39):
an uptick and taxes quickly, especiallyif the home you purchased hasn't been sold
in a while. In Michigan,property taxes are capped and they can't increase
more than five percent in any year. So despite home values that have been
increasing for the last several years,we've been on this kind of positive upward
projectory for you know, a numberof years. If the previous owner has

(13:01):
lived in that home. For let'ssay, you know, five, ten,
fifteen, twenty years, the amountthat they've been paying for property taxes
didn't increase in tandem with the valueof their home because their taxes were capped.
Once you buy the home, everything'sgoing to be adjusted and you're going
to see an increase in what youpay for taxes. So you really want
to be sure to talk to youragent about this because there's a lot of

(13:24):
information that may be online when you'relooking at different portals and you're seeing kind
of a history of taxes on thehome and stuff like that. Important to
know what there or what the currenthomeowner is paying, not necessarily what you're
going to be paying. So youwant to talk to your agent about right
right absolutely, And this is whyyou always want to make sure you can
afford to pay more than you thanyou are approved for again, because your

(13:48):
homeownership costs are going to steadily increaseincrease over time. Homeowners insurance typically goes
up every year, and recently thepercentage rate of increase is higher than in
the past. NASH As of Aprilof twenty twenty four, the average cost
of homeowners insurance rows twenty three percentover last April, which I think that's
that's a big cation. Yeah,that's a huge increase. So it is

(14:11):
often worth it to you know,shop your insurance companies at least a couple,
you know, every couple of years, maybe tied to take care,
take advantage of any group discounts,you know, to help lower those costs.
Yep. Absolutely, And you wantto pay attention to your you know,
ESCRO statement both at closing and asyou make payments over time, because
you want to make sure that youknow what they're taking out, matches what
they should be taking out, andthat everything's going where it's supposed to go.

(14:35):
And then another thing to consider isis you know, if the mortgage
company is taking money from you monthlyto pay taxes and insurance, if that's
a preferred method for you, ifyou're somebody who has to because you'll only
put three or five percent down,you don't really have a choice. If
you're putting down twenty percent or more, you can ask to have your taxes
and insurance removed from your payment.That way, you have control over sending

(14:58):
those funds aside. You still aregoing to need to budget and pay for
those I mean, that doesn't changethat, but maybe you had the flexibility,
maybe you can put it into aCD or a money market or something,
maybe where you're earning a little moneyover the course of the year on
it versus giving it to somebody elseand letting them reap the potential financial benefit
of holding onto your right. AndI just did that, and I kind

(15:18):
of hit a little bit of atook me a few calls, shall we
say, of going back and forthand asking why are they making me do
this? I s I'm putting morethan twenty percent down. I have never
had insurance or taxes pulled out ofmy mortgage because I've always paid twenty percent
or more down in my home.Yeah. It took me like three calls
and being quite adamant about the factthat I will close with you at this
point because I don't have a choice. Yeah, but I will move at

(15:39):
the first possible opportunity if you don'twork with me on this right. I
mean. And ultimately they were able. They were able to do it,
So I don't know what the holdup was, but I mean, sometimes
you may have to ask more thanonce to get this stuff. Yeah,
Well, maybe maybe it is morecommon for people to have that in escrow.
You know, maybe that is themore common scenario, but you know,
I agree, I'm with you.I think also, like first time

(16:00):
home buyers probably have the most likelybe the bulk of the population that needs
to have that in escrow. Butyou know, after a homeowner for a
while, you know, usually youcan't get that pulled. I think we
did that after owning the home fora while and then we were able to
go and then and have that pulledout escro and we just handled it,
handled it yourself. Yeah, Andlike I said, I mean, there's

(16:22):
no right or wrong. I mean, if if, if it works better
for you just to have it pulled, you know, right from you know
kind of right from the mortgage,then you know it's there. You don't
have to worry about it. Yeah, by all means, right, you
use whatever method. The key hereis sometimes it's a surprised that the that
the amounts change. Yes, homeownersinsurance and taxes typically move in an upward
direction, and you can plan onit. Yeah, and you can plan

(16:44):
on it. The good news isoften your salary moves in the same in
the same way, you know,so hopefully that helps minimize the pressern there,
right, well, there is asilver lining to property taxes, and
that's often the pleasant surprise of howyou can use them and maybe some other
home ownership cost as a tax writeoff. So that's a positive, you
know, surprise, and that asurprise number three. Right, So,

(17:07):
if you itemize your deductions, youcan deduct the interest paid on your mortgage
during the tax here as a mortgageinterest deduction. There are some limits on
how much you can deduct, sodefinitely consult a tax professional you know for
more specific information. But utilizing thistax benefit can reduce the amount of your
income that is subject to be taxSo to your point, that's that's on

(17:30):
the positive. You can also deductthe property taxes you pay on your home,
so typically you can deduct up toten thousand dollars in combined state and
local property taxes that you paid.So but wait if you thought that was
good news, there is more.Any origination fees or discount points that you
have may have paid with a newmortgage in a tax here can also be

(17:51):
deducted when you itemize your deductions.And if you sold a home and made
a profit, you may be ableto exclude that profit from your tax,
provided you lived in your home asa primary resident two of the last five
years. And to kind of echowhat Pama just said, you know,
we're not tax consultants, you know, so please don't just take our Yeah,
well, we're throwing out there asgospel. I mean, we've researched

(18:14):
this, we believe all of thisto be true, but certainly talk to
your tax advisor to see how youmight be able to capitalize on this.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Andalso if you own a second home,
you know, whether you rent itout or not, there are potential tax
deductions for the mortgage interest deduction onthat property as well. There are some
limits on how much can be deducted, and if the property is rented out,

(18:37):
you need to live there a minimumnumber of days a year. But
if you do own a second home, it is worth again talking to that
tax professional about how you can takeadvantage of deductions for that property as well.
Yep. And we had talked aboutmaintenance on a home, you know,
kind of being one of the surprises, like all the different things you
have to think about, and youknow, once you buy and you own
a home, it's likely you're goingto do some of those updates. And
if you do an update that improvedenergy efficiency, let's say adding new insulation,

(19:03):
maybe some new doors or some windows, you can claim, you know,
up to thirty percent of the costup for these type of improvements.
I mean typically though a lot ofthat's also going to depend on how much
you make, and they've got somedifferent formulas there, but there is certainly
money that you can you know,at least a little bit of a credit
that can come your way. Iknow we did that, we had put
new windows on our old house lastyear. Was able to take that when
I was working on taxis here recently, had a little bit of a credit

(19:26):
that we were able to use onthat. There are also tax credits for
certain clean energy improvements, like ifyou use solar panels, a geothermal heat
pomp, you know, and stufflike that. So again, if you've
done any of those types of thingsthat revolve around energy efficiency or energy improvements,
make sure you're talking to make sureyour tax professional knows you've done those

(19:48):
half your receipts so that they canget you any due credits. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, Yeah, Sothat's what I was thinking when you said
that about your windows. So youreally want to make sure you have those
receipts. It is a but itis kind of funny. It's like I
spent the a bottom I spent involveda comma. The amount of credit did
not, so it was pretty smallin comparison. But hey, I'll take

(20:10):
whatever I can do. Yeah,yeah, whatever I can get on the
deduction. There you go. Soas much as you love your home,
it can be you can kind oftake it to a whole new level of
enjoying living there, or you canprobably find that you're negatively impacted by the
people that live around you kind ofgrouped into surprise number four and hopefully for

(20:32):
you listening, it's a good surprise. Is the degree to which neighbors can
really affect your quality of life?Yeah, yeah, so true. So
one of the best things you cando when looking for a home is check
out the neighbors. So don't justdo a quick drive through the neighborhood.
You know, walk through the neighborhood. Talk with people you come across and
ask them how they like living there, how long they lived here, you
know, those type of questions.Explain that you're considering moving there and you're

(20:56):
trying to get a feel for thearea. You know, if you can
find out if there's neighborhood association andif so, is it active, and
you know, if someone has adog there walking, maybe ask them about,
you know, the area of veterinaryclinics, you know, those type
of things, and see if theneighbors are helpful and you know, and
are willing to provide information, becauseif I mean, you kind of get
a good first impression, right,I mean, if you're out there asking

(21:18):
some people and they're like, oh, my goodness, you know you'll love
living here. Yeah, you know, I mean that's a good sign.
Yes. If it's kind of like, you know, they can't answer the
question or make eye contact, maybethere's something you need to do a little
more digging exactly. Our best tipis to visit the home you're considering in
the neighborhood during a time when neighborsare likely to be out and about.

(21:38):
Kind of hard to kind of havethose impromptu conversations. If you're walking the
neighborhood at ten o'clock at night,I mean, you're just probably not going
to bump into people, So youwant to do that, and if it's
possible, I know, the paceof the market right now has been historically
a little bit faster. You maynot be able to do this in every
situation, but if you are ableto visit during different times, if you're

(21:59):
a night or maybe you're on theother end and you're a very early riser,
you know, take a look atthe neighborhood at those times. You
know, is it going to beconducive to your lifestyle? If you're working,
like say a Friday night night shift, and then everybody on your block
is up at seven am in thelawn maybe a pleasant surprise? Is that
not welcome news? I mean somethingyou just might want to try to check

(22:21):
out? Yeah, sure, absolutelywell. Surprise Number five of home ownership
is the new amount of knowledge thatyou need to properly keep up your home
probably goes a little bit hand inhand. I mean, some of these
kind of seem to be kind ofoffshoots to what we talked about first.
Is this, you know, themaintenance and the up keeping, the surprise
of everything that you have to do. But this is just you know,
you know, the knowledge you needto have, And it's kind of if

(22:45):
you go back when you lived eitherat home or an apartment or someplace else
like that, when something broke youcalled somebody else, right, So it
was mom and dad's problem. Yeah, it was a landlord's problem, property
manager. Yeah. But all ofa sudden, you're you're the expert.
Yeah yeah, yeah, exactly,the dude, so no, exactly.
So, you know, think aboutthe things that make your home cozy and

(23:07):
functional and a happy place to live, like, for example, you know,
working heating and air conditioning, airconditioning systems and appliances, maybe unobstructed
sewer pipes, and you know,nice water type plumbing. Once you own
a home, if it breaks,you've got to fix it yourself, you
know, or hire someone else todo that. Therefore, it becomes important

(23:27):
for you to really know your house. You want to be familiar with the
sprinkler system, you're water and gasvalve, shut off, the hot water
heater, water softener, those typeof things. And you want to have
a good hand on the age ofthese systems in the anticipated lifespan of them,
and what regular maintenance is required tokeep them in good working order.

(23:47):
And you want to know about howmuch it's going to cost your place.
These things, the ones that areentering the last phase of their life,
so you can also budget for these. You know, these things are coming,
so plan accordingly. Well, especiallyI mean, if you've lived in
a house in a while, youinherited a house, let's say, where
you had appliances, whether that's thewasher, dryer or something like that,
and you know they're ten fifteen yearsold. You've never bought one before,

(24:07):
you don't really know how much anew one's going to cost, yes,
so you want to start learning aboutthat before all of a sudden you have
to buy one. So perhaps youcan budget yeah for that. And to
be honest, whether you're a Imean, you can be a first time
homeowner and you're learning a lot ofthis on the go because you don't know
what you don't know, and youhave to kind of live through it.
But you can also learn things insubsequent homes because every home has some different

(24:33):
items that are maybe need to beaddressed. I mean, and we're you
know, being real honest about we'venever lived on a septic, you know,
and well before, so we're learninga lot right now. I've always
been a city water gale and acity sewer person, and so you know,
we're learning about that and water softenersand I'm learning things I didn't know
and a good way to do thisis to ask questions. You don't have

(24:53):
to pretend that you know everything.When we had an issue with the water
softener and they were coming out,we made it a point for both of
us to be home so that wecould both be there to hear what they
had to say. We could bothask questions, and I did to the
to the from people that came,I says, it's going to be real
honest with you. Never have dealtwith this before. I know nothing.
Yeah, yeah, you can onlyhonest Yet I know nothing. Tell me

(25:15):
what I need to know, youknow, and stuff like that. And
it's and they were very happy,you know, to answer questions and help
us out a little bit. Andyou don't know if you don't ask.
Yeah, right right. You haveto get that knowledge for sure. Yeah.
Yeah. You also want to becomeknowledgeable about the cost of utilities,
local millages, and bond votes andunderstand how they're going to impact their tax

(25:37):
bills, the overall cost of keepingup a yard or pool, the cost
of lawn or tree service, sothat you can properly budget and spot anything
that is inconsistent with what you normallypay. Yep, good good advice,
because those are things that people aren'tnecessarily going to think about, right,
you know there and you also wantto spot, you know, and be
a weird the utility costs because Imean, you every now and then you'll
hear it on the news somebody gotthis outrageous bill, you know, and

(26:00):
the like that doesn't seem right.When that doesn't seem right, you know,
when something was going on. Butif you're not paying attention to those
things, something can slip past you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And
we talked about this before. Thisis another reason, you know, to
have a home inspected on the frontend before you buy it, to reduce
the number of surprises. Those inspectionsare going to come through and tell you
the age of appliances. Is iton its last legs? You know?
Do you think that this has onlygot another couple of years left in it?

(26:23):
You kind of know, you canbudget, you can start doing your
due diligence. I have jokingly said, the house that we are now living
in, that we just bought earlierthis year, I believe I know more
about this house before I moved inthan any house I've ever owned. Oh
yeah, I'm quite convinced I knowmore about the house and the people that
were sitting that were selling it.Yeah, but there was a lot going

(26:44):
on. There was things that wedidn't know, There were things that were
going to need to be fixed,and then we had contractors come in and
tell us how much it was goingto be to fix it, and got
a couple of quotes on all ofthat. I mean, and we again
older, wiser, Yes, youknow, I mean there's part of it
as you live and learn. Yes, but you can't know too much about
things and again ask a lot ofquestions. Yeah, yeah, I mean
to your point, I think probablya little bit because you already have been

(27:07):
a homeowner. You know, againyou you have not experienced septic tanks and
that type of thing, but yourmind is probably on a different thinking level
just because you have been a homeowner, so right, just that experience does
help. It does help. Imean, and you're going to learn it
because I can guarantee you something youlearn on the first house you buy,
you're going to take with you tothe sad house you buy, right,
and then you're going to be Okay, I learned, I will ask about

(27:30):
this, I'll be on the lookoutfor this, you know, or something
like that. And you learn withevery home purchase that you do. But
I can't say it enough, youknow, don't be afraid to ask questions.
If you have contractor outcoming out toyou to bid some work that's going
to be done, ask questions,Yeah, you know, why how long
is this going to be warranty?Do you warranty? You know the work?
Is that a manufacturers warranty? Youask questions? Yeah, yeah,

(27:52):
absolutely. Our next surprise is anotherpositive one, and surprise number six is
the relatively stable monthly living costs thatyou can have even if the real estate
market gets a little vulnerable. Soonce you're in your home, there's a
little bit of feeling of okay,you don't have to worry about everything else
that's going on. Yeah, someof those external things. So you know,
whether it is a stock marketer you'refor one k. You know,

(28:15):
when the market goes down, youknow, poof, there goes your money
and you have to wait until themarket comes back, you know, to
gain what you lost, and youare paying fees also to someone else to
manage your investments. You know.On the other hand, if the housing
market, you know, does godown, and we've been on quite a
run, with the whole prices youknow, going up. At some point
in time, it will level off. At some point in time. There
may be a bit of a dip, but you still have even if and

(28:37):
when that happens, you still havea roof over your head. In the
amount you're paying for it remains thesame. Yeah, you know, if
you're on if if you're on aa fixed you know, thirty year mortgage
or fifteen year mortgage, it doesn'tmatter. You're paying the same amount.
And if something happens where rates godown and you can refinance, you might
actually be paying less, you know, than you did when you initially started
out. So there is some stabilitythere. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,

(29:00):
you know, and unless you're anxiousto sell, you have not really lost
anything because it's still your home.And you know, to your point,
even if home values go down,you're able to stay in your home.
Over time, home values can riseagain. Yeah. So, I mean,
and you don't need to look reallyany farther. I mean, for
some people they won't, you know, they didn't really live through it as
an adult. But you go backto the Great Recession in two thousand and

(29:21):
you know, seven eight nine,home values took a beating. Yeah back
then, and anybody who owned ahome you took a beating on your value.
Yeah, has the short sales,you know, the in the foreclosures.
But if you were able to youknow, be able to stay employed
and you make those payments and yourode it out. Mm hmm yep,
a lot of people are reaping thosebenefits right now. You rode that market

(29:41):
back out and it's been on,you know, on a rise ever since
then, and you more than recoupedanything that you lost and then sun yes,
yes, absolutely well. Surprise numberseven is just how much external factors
can affect your property. There areseveral things that can affect you know,
what you can or can't do withyour home and overall your enjoyment of living

(30:03):
there. So if your home isin a subdivision covered by a homeowner's association,
you're going to need to know therules of what you can and cannot
do in that property. You know, for example, can you fence in
your yard or not? Can youhave a basketball hoop in your driveway?
Are you allowed to put a shedin your backyard? I know I have
an h o A in my suband mean it dictates when you can take

(30:26):
your trash out. You know whattime of day you can take your trash
to the curb? Even you know, can you park campers and big vehicles
and stuff like that. So youknow, those HOA rules there's they could
be serious. They could be serious. There's a lot of them, you
know, there's a lot of them. So so this can impact you know,
this could impact your you know,what your enjoyment, what you're expecting.

(30:49):
It's interesting because in the subdivision thatwe just left, there was an
h A and very similar to yours. No no basketball, you know,
things on the house. It hasto be a free standing you know,
thing of a jig and yeah,similar you can't have a camp or a
boat or you know, some bigvehicle for more than a couple of days
in the driveway. You know,all of that type of stuff. And
I guess I wasn't really into theneighborhood gossip, but walking at night after

(31:11):
dinner, you'd run into some neighborsand the one was always in tune with
what everything that was going on,and he was saying that there was some
shed that got put up without approval, and then another homeowner made a big
stink about it, and it becamea whole big deal, oh boy,
to the point that when we soldour house, like the new buyers had
to acknowledge they knew this, ohmy goodness, as part of the And
it's just like you know, soto your point, I mean, depending

(31:33):
on who you are and what youplan to do your house, I mean,
it may be no big deal,yes yeah, but for somebody else,
sure it might be. Could makea difference, or you know,
the other thing to consider, becausethat's kind of talking like you know,
homeowners associations and again condo, youknow, single family. Those are things
to be taken seriously. The otherside of things, your property could be
impacted by county or local zoning rulesor projects that over time could change the

(31:55):
character of your neighborhood. You know, most of us fall in love with
the home itself, standab belief that'swhere you're going to live. You get
inside those four walls and you pictureyourself there. But you really do want
to pay attention to adjacent properties,especially if you aren't in a developed subdivision.
If you're in the middle of athree HEADERD home subdivision, I think,
like your home is and my oldhome wheel was, chances are there's

(32:16):
not a lot that's going to reallychange there. But if you're next to
an empty farm field or a lot, you really want to pay attention to
how the land is zoned. Yeah, because you could have a big box
store going next to you. Imean, chances are it would be right
next to you. But I meanyou don't know what could go in and
the light and the traffic and thenoise and everything else that could come from
that could change. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then another home buyer

(32:38):
tip is you know, thoroughly researchthe property and whatever you know, long
term plans kind of falls into thesame thing that are on fould with the
planning department, that it might impactyour neighborhood. Again pulling from my recent
experience, and this had really startedmore with the sewer and the well conversation,
But when I was on the phonewith the county, I started asking
questions and one of them was,well, you know, we're currently on

(32:59):
a well. Are there any plansfor city water? And they were saying,
well, no, that that goesas far as where the high school
is. We've got no plans tomove, you know, any further than
that. But you don't know untilyou ask because while that I would view
that as a positive change, right, it would also probably involve a tax
assessment, yeah, cost sure.And so while the change itself might be

(33:21):
positive for you, there could comea dollar sign attached to attached to it.
Yeah. So again just things youwant to you want to ask,
Yeah, absolutely. Surprise Number eightis how you really get to know your
home, and it's quirks. Ifyou've ever stayed overnight at someone else's home,
you've probably noticed some weird noises,perhaps some creeks and other sounds that's

(33:43):
gonna happen at verbos airbnbs and youkind of lay awake at night wondering exactly
why that noise is and should Ibe concerned? Right? Yeh, because
they're not scared. Yeah, soice makers, refrigerator motors, you know,
the fern is kicking on. Allthese things do have a pattern and
sounds that overtime you do get usedto and when something isn't quite right,
you know, if you are actuallylistening to your house, then your house

(34:06):
is actually going to tell you thatsomething needs attention. So so I think
that's that's good to kind of beaware aware of those sounds. But you
know, just like your car willdevelop a different sound or vibration that you
that you recognize isn't right. Yourhouse is often going to tell you,
you know, it's the same thing, same concept. You just have to
be kind of yeah, don't writeit off or try to excuse it.
Yes, yeah, absolutely so.An example is that you could you could

(34:30):
learn that the exterior wallpipes in yourhome are prone to freezing when the temperature
dips below twenty degrees. Uh.If you learn this about your home,
you can be proactive to keep aneye on the temperature and prevent freezing by
opening the cabinet doors and running alittle water through the pipes at night.
Well, and PM's absolutely right.I mean, every house gets it,
gets a rhythm to it, andyou're going to come to know what are

(34:50):
normal sounds, you know versus theoh, that's okay, that's a knock
I haven't heard before. You know, that's a kiss? Yes, yeah,
I don't never heard that before.The hearing something seems a little angry
in the furnace department, department beyondwhat your ears here, and and oftentimes
it is a hearing thing in ahouse because things settle and creak and make
noise, but let your other senseshelp you as well. If you notice

(35:13):
the smell, something that smells mildewy, don't ignore it. If you're smelling
it, chances are there's a waterissue somewhere and it may not be visible,
but something somewhere is going wrong.If you're smelling mildews sure, yeah,
yeah, so you want to youknow, if you notice a light
is flickering or the shower is low, you want to be in tune with
those because maybe there's an electrical problembrewing, yeah, or something's not quite

(35:35):
right with the plumbing. So whilethe ears are usually the first sign,
all your senses can help you.Vision, smell, it all works together.
It all works together where the headshoulders needs to go. Oh yeah,
it all works together. Yeah.Well, if you live in a
place for any length of time,you know memories and feelings. You know
you're going to get attached to thehouse. So it's no surprise that you

(35:58):
know. Our surprise Number nine inthe survey was the degree to which you
can become attached to your home andfeel joy in improving. Yeah, yeah,
kind of, I guess, kindof a nice surprise. You know,
it can come as a surprise tosome home homeowners just how obsessed they
become with their home and changes andupdates that they have made. I mean,
even something as simple as you know, changing a faucet. You know,

(36:20):
you might step back and think,wow, it's so much better.
You know, it stands out,you know, sticks out a little bit
further, the water runs better.You know that type of thing. So,
you know, whether it's a faucetor a light fixture, you know,
maybe a whole room renovation. Youknow, you find that you step
back and admire your work and youknow, pat yourself on your back because
you did it. It's like itwas your your hard work, you know,
your heart and soul that you putinto those products. Kind of a

(36:40):
sense of gratification, right there's Imean, and I think that there are
especially you know, I think anytimeyou move into a new home, you
can get kind of that feeling ofjoy just you know, driving up to
your home. You know, you'veworked hard to save the money to buy
this. It's normal to feel thatkind of yeah, you know, swelling
in the you know, with prideand satisfaction getting into the neighborhood or the
driveway. You know, owning ahome. It's not just the financial accomplishment.

(37:04):
I mean, certainly that is apart of it, but it's a
personal and it can often be avery emotional attachment. I didn't really put
this as a separate a separate surprise, I mean, because there was a
couple of them that kind of seemedsimilar to me. But I guess we'll
kind of wrap it into a finalthen it can be a good news bad
news, you know, following upon you know, you have these memories,
and you've got these feelings, andyou've got this joy and sense of

(37:27):
accomplishment you know, attached to yourhome. Well, if and when the
time comes that you want to move, it might be difficult to leave it
or envision someone else in your babyYeah, yeah, exactly exactly. It
is common to be so proud ofthe home that you created that you do
have a hard time selling it.The good news in this is that your
home was a place that you havefelt safe. You know, you did

(37:47):
create fond memories there, and youfeel a sense of accomplishment with all the
improvements that you made. So whenthe time does come to sally can feel
like you are leaving all those milestonemoments behind. But you have to remember
those memory are in your mind andyou can take them with you. So
that's the I think that's the keyright there, and try to hang on
to that piece of it. Yes, absolutely, you know. It may

(38:09):
also help to think of yourself asa steward of the home while it was
yours, and that the wonderful homeyou created is now going to allow a
new person or family to create theirown memories. Well, that's it.
I mean, I think that's anothergood way to look at it. And
I know when you're you put somuch yourself into a home, you know,
and we've often talked about depersonalizing,right, and we've done tips about,
you know, getting your home readyto sell. And the reason why

(38:30):
you do it is, you know, you want buyers to envision, you
know, themselves living there, andif your face is looking at them every
room they go into, it kindof hard for them to envision that.
Yeah. I really also think andwhile nobody really talks about it this way,
I think there's a dual purpose forthat. You start taking down the
family photos and other personal touches,helps you, as the seller, start

(38:52):
to detach because if you leave itall up, I mean, and other
other people are going through it andstuff that it's hard for you too.
So I really think that personalization,you know, kind of step when you're
getting ready to sell it. Certainlyyou're doing it with the eye towards I'm
trying to make this more neutral palettefor buyers to look at. But I
also think there is some wisdom onthe selling side because it helps you to

(39:13):
start that process of detaching yourself asa seller. Yeah, yeah, I
like that. I think that.Yeah, And it's leading up to you
know, it's time leading up toyou actually moving, so it almost gives
you time to process. I mean, yeah, and as you're taken down
the family pictures or you're taken downthe vacation photo or whatever you know it
might be, you can kind ofyou reflect on the trip you took or

(39:35):
what happened that led to the photobeing there as you're wrapping it up,
and it kind of lets you,like you said, kind of come to
terms and do your little you know, kind of closing up with all of
with all of this exactly on ascale one of the time. No,
you're not looking to move right now, but on a scale of one to
ten, if I asked you howattached are you to your home and would
you have trouble moving? What wouldyou So I think probably a ten figure

(39:58):
that when I asked the question,I feel very you know, very touch
And again, you know, noI'm not you know, we're not looking
to move. But just sometimes I'llthink about, well, what if we
were to move, you know,and and then right away my mind starts
going down memory lane, and oh, I don't know if I could,
you know, you know again,you know, I've raised my kids there,
so you know, the memories ofyou know, the kids and that

(40:20):
type and all though the little thingslike birthday parties or the big the big
something, you know, they camehome from school and there was a big
day for them, and they're alife. Yeah, yes, absolutely,
And I think, you know,again going back to the depersonalization, you
know, as much as I tryto keep the house clean, there's still
I still have things in the housethat are you know, maybe from when
they were little or whatever that youknow, leading up to us getting ready

(40:40):
to move, I would have tostart really cleaning out. And I think
sometimes seeing those things makes me stillfeel like, you know, like all
those memories, like I have tohave all those things to keep the memories.
But I don't really ultimately it's notreally true yet you don't, but
I mean it gets I mean becausewe had lived in the house that we
just sold for almost twenty years,so not you know, I mean that's
a good long time. Yeah,yeah, And you know, there was

(41:01):
a lot wrapped up into the house, and you know, relatives that are
no longer here, you know,had spent time at different family events.
They're hard not to kind of seethat in your mind's eye. And then
I think for us, because wewere moving from a house with no basement
or with a basement to one withno we had to do a ton of
purging, right, So, whetherit was like old high school stuff and

(41:23):
you know Army Day stuff and youknow stuff like that, it was like,
okay, there's a lot of memorieswrapped up in here, and there
was always comfort knowing they were inthe basement, But let's be honest,
how often did you really rip openthe box and look at them? But
they were there right right, rightexactly, And now it's like it's like
ripping a band aid off. It'slike, well, this can't all come
with so we're gonna have to getrid of some stuff, and it is

(41:45):
it can be hard. Because youasked me the other day if it was
if the new house felt like homeor was it hard? And I would
say, out of the two ofus, out of my husband and I,
I certainly went into it with themore bittersweet mentality. I was excited
for the new house. But Idid I like, especially as the house
started getting more and more empty.Yeah, you know, I'd stand like,

(42:06):
you know, kind of coming inthe back door, kind of looking
in the kitchen because I mean kindof the first it kind of hit when
you come home from work or whatever, and I'd get teared up. I
mean, this was this was ourhome for twenty years. You know,
this this this was home to me. That the look, the smell,
everything about the house that was youknow, home to me. Yeah.
Right, And you know, Ithink on the other my husband's side is
how can you not be excited aboutmoving where? Moving where we're going?

(42:29):
You know, I didn't say Iwasn't. I just said there is a
lot attached here. But that beingsaid, I actually am surprised how quickly
the new house feels like home.Yeah, And I don't really miss the
old one, which I guess isa sign it was the right decision.
That's the way I look at it. It was the right decision. We
were ready, you know for whatwas next. Yes, and you know,

(42:50):
and I look at the you know, the house that we left behind.
A younger couple with two small kids. They were so excited because each
kid was going to have their ownbedroom. Yeah, they've got you know,
parents coming to spend some time withthem the spring. And then you
know that that haven't seen this,and I'm like, you know, it
was a good turning of the Yeah, yeah, yeah, learning of the
keys over to somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. That's a perfect example of

(43:12):
where you're just talking a few minutesago with you know, you kind of
created this really nice home and youknow, steward of the home, and
now you can you know, nowsomeone else can take advantage and create their
own mind and do their own thingwith it, and you know, and
stuff like that. But it isinteresting. I mean, if if anybody,
you know, once you own ahome, you do take you know,
it's it's beyond the fact that Iown it on paper, It's I
own it in my heart. Yeah, I own it in my mind,

(43:35):
and you put a lot into it. I mean, because if anybody's lived
in a home many amount of time, you've had some repair that costs more
than you wanted, right, Youput a lot of money into it,
and it's like, oh, Iwant to get my money's worth out of
this. Yeah, you know,you like you've done the home projects you've
done, whether it's painting or akitchen renovation like you did, and you
saved to get something really big likethat to happen, and you're like really
proud of that, right right,right exactly. And that's why even too

(43:57):
sometimes I think about those things andI, wow, that'd be really hard
to leave knowing that, you know, and I got just exactly how I
want exactly. Yeah. Yeah,if there was one thing in the house,
that would be because I just changedthe color scheme of the kitchen,
the cabinets, and I'm like,I'm back to come back to quite what
I had, But similar enough,I don't see that in the near future

(44:20):
fixing that that problem. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, which is life.
Well, hopefully this was kind ofa fun list for people to kind
of go through. You know thatwhen you do get a new house,
there are some you know, mostof them are pleasant surprises. I mean
maybe a little bit of surprises,you know, on how much your time,
your home maintenance takes. All thethings are going to learn, you
know about you know, being ahomeowner and what it takes to you know,

(44:42):
keep a home up. But there'sa lot of good things too.
You have the amount of pride,you get some tax deductions along the way.
If you've got great neighbors, itcan become like an extended family.
There's all sorts of clus Yeah,yeah, absolutely yeah. The good outweighs
the bad, I think, ohabsolutely yeah. Absolutely. Well, PM,
thanks for coming in studio and joiningus again today. Sure, thanks
for having me well, our pleasure, and thanks to our listeners for listening
today. We hope you enjoyed thetime that you spent with us. Our

(45:06):
next podcast is scheduled to focus onthis current complex market that we're in.
Not only do we continue to havea shortage of inventory and you buyers out
there, and the FED seems tosay they're going to lower rates, but
then they kind of come out andsay they're probably not, and so we
don't really know what's going on withthat. Then you add to it,
some lawsuit stuff that's going on.There's all sorts of stuff for us for

(45:29):
us to talk about on the nextepisode. We look forward to chatting with
you then. We hope you enjoytoday's episode. Don't forget to subscribe,
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