What To Do First When You Buy a Home
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I've seen a lot of threadjacks on this over the years, but I don't think we've ever had a post — so let's discuss. What are the first things you should do when you buy a new apartment or house — and what should you maybe wait a little while for? What's your best advice for a new homeowner?
(For purposes of this post, let's discuss a new-to-you home, meaning it could be old, new, or custom — but I'm pondering having additional posts on renovating an older home, building a custom home, buying new construction, etc. What's your interest in those topics?)
This can be hugely independent by city and region, but here are some of my thoughts:
What to Do First When You Buy a Home
- THE FLOORS. Particularly if you've never owned a home before, you may not have really paid attention to hardwood or carpeting because those were difficult to change. But when you become a homeowner, the floors will be one of the first things to annoy you because they are SUCH a pain in the butt to change once you move all of your stuff in. So while you have that vacant, empty space, take a good look — how IS the flooring? (Particularly if you have babies near the crawling years — or hope to have them soon — seriously, get on your hands and knees and crawl around the floor.) If the answer is “Not great, Bob!” you can do one of two things: replace it entirely, or give it a face lift, such as giving carpets a power steam or simply refinishing the hardwood floors. Replacing it will be better (and totally make the space your own), but sometimes time and money are limited.
- Fresh coat of paint. Some people know the entire design for their home when they move in; other people like to do it gradually as they live in the space. If you're the latter type, strongly consider giving the walls a fresh coat of paint in a neutral — it makes the whole place feel fresh again. (You'd be shocked how many stories there exist on “the best whites for the walls” — see, e.g., Elle Decor and My Domaine.)
- If you have one electrical project, consider the whole home. Do you want fans in the rooms? Sconces for the walls? Smart light switches? Get all of the early, obvious stuff done at once.
If you have troubles with allergies or if your home is new construction, I've heard that vacuuming the vents can make a world of difference and should be done sooner rather than later.
What to Wait On When You Buy a Home
For my $.02, the big one here is drapery — put temporary (affiliate link) or cheap shades up for a year and see how the light is through all of the seasons. If you have outdoor space, that's another place to possibly wait and see what it's like in different seasons.
Another thing to wait on (IMHO) is replacing older-but-fine appliances like stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers just as a matter of course. You may THINK you want something shiny and new, but in my experience if the item is old and still in good working order (and doesn't clash with your entire design sense), it's probably better made than anything you'll buy today. (I'm curious if other people agree with me — this entire opinion may have been formed by Dooce getting a new washing machine when she had a baby who was still in the projectile puke/poop stage of things and how that went horribly…)
Readers who are homeowners, what are your best tips? What SHOULD you do first when you buy a home? What should you wait on? Do you think there's a big difference in what to do first depending on type of home, e.g., houses vs. condos vs. co-ops vs. townhouses?
Stock photo via Stencil.
Unless there is something you are 100% sure you want to do, decide (with your spouse/partner if you have one) on a period of time when you will do nothing optional. Spouse and I agreed on one year – we would fix anything that broke but not buy anything new – and like the drapery suggestion above it was a great time to figure out what was actually important to us. (We figured out we don’t want to spend money on anything that the kids are likely to destroy, which is to say pretty much everything.)
Feeling like you have to re-do the entire kitchen the very second you move in. Unless the kitchen is such a disaster that it would fail a Department of Health inspection, wait it out a bit and see what is workable with the layout and what is not. There are so many — SO MANY — kitchen options out there that designing a kitchen is overwhelming and you can end up with things you “think” you want and need that end up not working in your new house. Plus, giving it a little time gives you a chance to find out just how you actually use your kitchen space so you can map out things like where to add new outlets and where to put cupboards vs. drawer space.
One thing about paint – sometimes people can’t see that their furniture (especially if getting new furniture) might clash horribly with new paint in a space (consider the undertones of the floors too). Maria Killam’s blog talks extensively about painting mistakes and is really educational. Co-sign above – wait on the kitchen remodel! We waited 2 years for ours and realized we didn’t need to change the layout after all and found priority features for new appliances (and had more money saved up for the project).
Wait at least 1 full year on any major landscaping or planting projects. During that year, note what plants you have in your yard where, what blooms when, how much sunlight you get where at different times of year, water drainage, etc., so you know what you already have to work with when you do start making changes.
With the appliances, there are actually stainless steel, essentially stick on, pieces so you can update the outside without buying new appliances simply for the look. It looks very realistic and you can’t notice until you get two inches from the very edge – and even then only if applied poorly.
I’ve been in my new-to-me home (it is an apartment built in 1890) for just over a year now. The only big discretionary thing I have done is to replace the central heating boiler. It cost about the same as custom wardrobes would have done but is so much more important for peace of mind.
When things have broken I have replaced them intelligently. My (fairly cheap) oven broke catastrophically and, as the kitchen is fairly new and I like the design, I chose to replace it with a *good* new oven rather than get it fixed.
Depending on the age of the house, replace the toilets for newer and more efficient models. While not the lightest pieces of equipment, toilets are pretty straightforward to switch out (easier than faucets on a sink) and the savings on your water bill can be substantial. If the toilets are already fairly new, at least switch out the toilet seats for those with the soft-close lids.
Co-sign on the appliances. We have good old fashioned Speed Queen W/D in our basement – mechanical controls, limited settings, doesn’t try to wash a load of towels with 3 ounces of water – and while they’re not pretty, we will be keeping them alive as long as possible!
The appliance issue honestly perplexes me. My parents had a HHI of over $500k a year and didn’t replace appliances until the end of their useful life, because they didn’t see the need to replace a perfectly well-functioning item with a newer item.
(Also, as the environmentalist in the family, it’s a terrible habit. The environmental impact of throwing away perfectly good appliances is appalling.)
Replace things that are hard to do once you are moved in; otherwise, settle in and see if it’s an actual problem before you upgrade for the sake of upgrading.
My first have always been blinds, ceiling fans, rekeying, and anything needing a repair. I’ve always tried to be very frugal after buying a house, so I leave the cosmetic things like paint, flooring, drapes, and appliances for later.
My coworker said she always changes the toilet seats. That will definitely be added to my list if I ever buy a different house.
DO get rid of popcorn ceilings if you’re buying an older home that has them and you don’t like the look. I’m still finding pieces of it two years later, and we ours redone before we moved into the house. I could only imagine how bad it would have been if we had tried having it done while we were living there.
We painted all rooms (including basement rooms), had the wooden floors refinished, had two leaking roof windows replaced, and child-proofed the dangerous stairs. A coat of white paint and the refinishing of the fkoors really made the difference between a shabby/run-down and a modern, well-kept look. At the same time costs were not very high. The windows and stairs I see as a necessary must and I am glad we had them done before anything happened. We also installed inexpensive lights and curtains to have a completed look and to give us time to decide on something nicer.
First time homeowner here with a home built in 1980 and remodeled a bit over the years before we got it… I will say, do everything you can on your homebuyer’s warranty if you have one! Our area required one of these policies. I wish we’d taken advantage of it more with some electrical work we had done, because all the outlets in one room weren’t working. Another 2 cents, I think what you do and fix depends on how long you’re planning to be in the home. Is it 5 years? 10? 15? My husband and I are looking at 10+ years to grow into this house, so we did things with that in mind and also with a limited budget. Another consideration is what type of income you’re looking at. If you get huge yearly bonuses, maybe you can wait to do some big projects.
After basically depleting most of our savings into a house, my husband and I did things in a certain order. First, we had all of the carpeting steam cleaned and scotch-guarded before our furniture got moved in, 10/10 recommend. Second, we dealt with things that were safety issues, like electrical and some minor things like the door to the water heater wouldn’t shut, etc. Third, we dealt with some things that fell into one of two categories, of 1) this is a cleanliness/security issue or 2) ‘if we don’t do this now while we hate it we’ll learn to live with it and that’s not okay’, ha. Some people might find this nutty but I’m glad we did things this way. Getting rid of the popcorn ceilings or replacing cabinet doors? We can do that later. We ended up getting cabinet hardware in our living room replaced (that had been painted over, ew), had a botched-looking doggie door cut into the drywall to the backyard removed/repaired, replaced the kitchen faucet that didn’t have any pressure/spray function, and replaced the teeny tiny exhaust fan from 1980 with an actual hood to keep our kitchen clean and keep the air grease/smoke free. We also fixed a water-damaged cabinet below a former wet bar. Having the cabinet hardware replaced in the living room actually gave us some fixtures to fix some wonky hanging cabinets in the kitchen, which had the same hardware. Were they things we didn’t HAVE to do? Sure, but I’m glad we did them first. I cook a ton, so the kitchen repairs were important to me for the long-term. I say just get your list of what you want to do, prioritize it somehow with your values and budget.