5 Tips to Make Home Repairs More Affordable

The good news is that home repairs don’t always have to cost a fortune. There are things you can do to make home repairs more affordable.

There’s a lot to love about owning your own home. It’s an investment that will pay off in the future when you’re ready to sell. In the meantime, you have the freedom to upgrade, update, decorate, and just live life the way you want without a landlord looking over your shoulder when you’re a homeowner.

But that doesn’t mean owning a home is a walk in the park. With no landlord to turn to, you’re the one stuck footing the bill for home repairs.

Hire a High-Quality Professional

If you’re looking to save money on a home repair, your first thought is probably hiring someone who can do it for cheap. Although that will save you money upfront, it won’t save you in the long run.

It’s much better to hire a professional wherever you live, whether that’s an HVAC Fort Collins professional if you live in Texas or a pluming professional in New York City. It’s true that you’ll pay more for the repair, but you’ll get more bang for your buck.

Those who charge more are almost always licensed and insured, and they often guarantee their work. For instance, if your quote is somewhere between $4,800 - $11,300, you can rest easy knowing that if the repair doesn’t quite go as planned, you can rest easy knowing that they’ll make it right.

Fix it Yourself

There are some things that require a professional, but there are plenty of other things you can fix yourself. When you fix it yourself, all you have to do is pay for parts.

A few fixes you can learn how to do around the house yourself include:

• Fixing a running toilet
• Unclogging a drain
• Caulking cracks and gaps
• Cleaning your refrigerator's coils
• Changing the air filter in your HVAC system

Maintain Your Systems

One of the best ways to save on costly repairs is to prevent them from happening in the first place. The best way to do that is to make sure your home is properly maintained.

That means doing things yourself, like replacing the air filter in your furnace and thoroughly cleaning appliances, like your washing machine and dishwasher. Keep your eyes open for clogs in your gutters so they can be cleared right away and check your fire alarms to make sure they’re working.

In some cases, it’s a good idea to call in a professional. For example, a plumber can flush your water heater to keep it working like new, while an HVAC technician can clean your vents and make small, affordable repairs before they turn into big, costly replacements.

Prioritize What Needs to Be Done

Your to-do list is never complete when you own a home. There’s always something that needs doing, and the cost of all those updates and repairs can really add up.

Updating a home is a marathon—not a sprint. If you’re tight on money and can’t do everything that needs doing, prioritize what needs to be done first.

There are a lot of great ways to upgrade your home, but most of them can wait. For example, the knobs on your kitchen cabinets don’t really have to be replaced. Neither does your bathroom hardware or your lighting fixtures.

Those things can wait if a more important repair, like a roof replacement or a new window installation, needs to be done first.

Start A Home Repair Savings Account

The last thing you want is to have to go into debt or drain your bank account because your home needs an important repair. Instead of getting caught by surprise and wondering how you’re going to pay for a repair, start a home repair savings account.

A home repair savings account is a dedicated account where you put money aside for repairs, replacements, and upgrades. A good rule of thumb to follow is to set aside five percent of your income for home repairs, but an amount that you can afford is always better than not having an account at all.

That way you have at least some money you can use, even if it’s just a down payment on an expensive replacement.

Home repairs can run the gamut from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, but you should never get stuck paying more than you have to. There are ways to make home repairs a little bit more affordable so you and your family can continue living comfortably in your home.