3 Surprising Expenses to Prepare for When You Buy Your First House

Published

April 15, 2019

Cheryl Lock is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in dozens of publications, both in print and online. She was a money editor at Parents magazine before leaving to launch the inaugural parents vertical for the personal finance website Learnvest. You can find other stories of hers online at Money, The Fiscal Times and Business Insider, as well as in magazines like Woman's Day, Runner's World and Family Circle. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and daughter.

When you first buy a house you expect to pay for a lot of things. Increased utility and insurance bills, furniture to fill your rooms, and perhaps even an HOA fee are all par for the course when you buy a home. Take it from me, though: it’s the little purchases that really add up and will take you by surprise.

Learn from my mistakes. Here are three things to watch out for when you buy your first home.

1. Outdoor Accouterments

As a former city apartment dweller, it never occurred to me that it might cost money (and a lot of it, at that) to keep up with the outside of a house. From sprinkler upkeep and landscaping to a lawnmower, patio furniture, and the occasional garden gnome, putting together an al fresco experience that you enjoy can really cost a fortune—and that’s before you get into structural upkeep like painting, roofing repair, and window washing.

If you can stand it, I recommend waiting until the peak outdoor season is over to really cash in on deals for outdoor goodies. Sites like Nextdoor can also put you in touch with people in your own neighborhood who might be selling or giving away exactly what you’re looking for.

2. Incidentals

The occasional paint touch-up here or maintenance need there is pretty common when you buy a new house, but why we needed ours was the big surprise. As it turns out, even though our house was listed as having central air, it did not (a small oversight on everyone’s part when it came to the walkthrough). And once we moved in, we removed two huge bookshelves in the den and discovered that the walls had been freshly painted and the white shag carpet had been replaced with wood flooring—around the bookshelves.

In other words, make sure you go through everything with a fine-tooth comb before signing on the dotted line to minimize the amount you have to spend on things like paint or varnish. In the end, none of these things would have stopped us from buying the house, but we could have asked the previous owners to help cover some of the costs.

3. Tools

My husband and I had always lived in city apartments before moving into our first house, and our hammer and screwdriver were pretty much the extent of our toolbox. As it turns out, home repairs often require more than just those two particular items.

I can’t really estimate how much we’ve spent on additional tools at this point, but taking the time to research the best prices and do some bargain hunting will certainly help you save on these items. I recommend doing the research now, before you desperately need those tools. It’s much easier to find the best deals when you don’t need that item right that very minute.

At the end of the day, it comes down to expecting the unexpected when houses are involved. But hey, that’s what an emergency savings account is for, right? Don’t have one of those yet? Here are three simple steps to starting one.

If you’re still in the market for a new home, check out our Mortgage Learning Center for expert tips and tricks for getting the most out of your mortgage.

Image: Mlenny