KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — If you own a home, you likely know the pains of home ownership.
Maintaining your house every year costs thousands of dollars. With record-high inflation, that number is up.
We have some ideas to save you money when repairing your home.
- First, DIY! If it's an easy fix, try it. YouTube has thousands of how-to videos for anything in your home. Watch a few and see if it's something you can safely and efficiently do yourself.
- Hire a qualified professional. A lot of large companies that handle plumbing or electricity are more expensive, but paying a little more might be worth it in the long run.
- Keep up with routine maintenance. Some things you can do are touch up paint on the exterior of your home, seal cracks, clean gutters, change air filters and make sure alarm batteries are working. This will help prevent a large emergency repair.
- Pick and choose what you fix! If it's cosmetic—hold off. If it's a necessity like your refrigerator, prioritize that purchase instead.
- Lastly, save for the worst. Some financial websites recommend saving a dollar per square foot a year. Other sites say to save 1% of your home estimate value so you are not taken off guard.