After Buying Your First Home

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You are a lucky new homeowner! Congratulations! You have searched and finally found your dream home. You have secured your mortgage and gone through real estate brokers, home inspections, lawyers and shopped around for insurance. You’ve done your homework on closing costs and signed a ton of paperwork. This has been a busy and exciting time for you but there is still more work to be done. To help navigate you through your home buying journey, this handy dandy guide is here for you to read. Here is what to expect in the first year after purchasing your new home and some important elements of how to prepare for being a new homeowner.

MORTGAGE AND INSURANCE

Now that you have a mortgage loan, you most likely have homeowner’s insurance of some sort as well. You have bought your home and it is now a smart idea to revisit your insurance needs in the next six months of having your home. You might fin d that your insurance covers too much or too little. Take a critical look at the policy and try to acquire a second round of quotes from insurers.

SET UP YOUR UTILITIES

It is time to set up various utilities that you will need in your name. This is the time to call the electric, phone and gas companies. Find out who supplies sewer and water in your county. Does your town take care of garbage and recycling or do you need to contract a pick up? For internet and broader TV service than basic antenna, you need to do the research and find the option that has the best bargain. There is so much digital entertainment now that many people are moving away from cable.

Check Your Billing Address

It is of utmost importance that your service providers have the correct contact information, down to the last digit of your postal code. If you aren’t getting bills because of an administrative error, you just might come home to the water turned off.

Get A Utility Provider Budget Plan

After the big move, money can feel very tight in the first year of owning a new house. Its quite the financial challenge and therefore, you must get on a budget plan where you can. Many utility providers estimate your use for the whole year, and then break your bills into 12 equal payments. This can reduce fluctuation in your charges throughout the year, which is very helpful financially.

MOVING IN!

Change the Locks ASAP

You can throw out the keys you got at the closing immediately after you change the locks! You have no clue who has a copy of those keys and its better to be on the safe side. So before you start moving your stuff in, call a locksmith or do it yourself! Don’t wait.

Set Up the Move In

Will you hire someone or move yourself? If you’re going to be hiring movers, get as many references as you can and at least three quotes. Make sure whoever you go with has insurance. If you’re doing it yourself, reserve your truck and make sure to get one that is slightly bigger and reserve it for slightly longer than you think you will need so that you can focus without stress.

Pack and Unpack

Pack your boxes room by room and label them carefully so that they can be brought immediately to the right place after being unloaded. Put up some makeshift signs for each room that correspond to your labels so that your unpacking is effective and organized. Why dump everything in the garage and start off with a headache? Remember you do not need to unpack all your stuff in one day. Set a goal for how many boxes you will unpack each day and stick to it.

SYSTEM SERVICE CHECK

Plan to have a service check on your HVAC, hot water heater, fireplace, and chimney, and any major appliances that might require it. Check all filters, and replace them with new clean ones if necessary. Be sure to evaluate all of your home systems.

Go through all of the breakers in your electrical box and label them. Label the incoming and outgoing pipes and the shut-off valves for your water and sewer service. Doing this from the get-go will save you time for diagnosing a problem should it arise later on.