New Year’s Resolutions for Homeowners

Everyone makes New Year resolutions and most relate to giving up bad habits, improving lifestyle or losing weight. In many cases, they are abandoned or forgotten in a matter of days.  As a homeowner, you should consider some resolutions that will protect your home – the fulcrum around which all future resolutions will be made. You just cannot afford to abandon or forget these issues.

Plan maintenance

No one knows your home as you do. You know what kind of repairs you need to do during the year. Sit down with a calendar and make a schedule of when you can take up the jobs and how long you need to complete them. Remember to add preparatory work, if any, before the job starts.

Have a fixed day of the month for doing all the routine maintenance chores such as replacing air filters, checking smoke alarms, cleaning out the garbage disposal and so on. Do mark the days on the calendar. If you stick to the dates and time frames, your house will surely be protected. There are quite a few apps available to help you with the scheduling.

Get smart

Home automation is no longer just a bunch of gadgets designed to make your life easier. Advanced security and energy management systems are available to maximize the safety of your home for your family to live there happily. Energy-efficient systems can cut your utility bills without making the family suffer in heat, cold or darkness. These additions will enhance the value of your home.

Go green

If you have space in your yard, you can plant trees that provide large bands of shade. The more the house is in the shade in summer, the cooler it is and the lower the air conditioning costs are. Just be careful to plant the tree where falling branches will not damage the house.

Check your insurance policy

Everything you do to your home affects its value. Lack of maintenance and high-energy use are among the things that could reduce its value. Since your house is your biggest investment, you want no doubt to protect it and increase it worth. The insurance policy you took some years ago may not reflect the repairs and improvements that have been done, which have added value to the home.

If your home is damaged or destroyed, the insurance payout may not be enough to rebuild and resume your life as it was before the disaster. Don’t forget about the purchases you have made – expensive furniture, artworks, jewelry, electronics etc.; all of them need to be included in your insurance portfolio.

Working out the amount of insurance coverage your home needs is not simple. For example, the large TV you bought last year may now cost significantly more than it did then. How much do you insure it for? Professionals can control best the cost of the policy while ensuring the protection your home and family require.

Contact an experienced insurance broker and get the guidance you need on homeowners insurance that will enable you to rebuild if the worst happens. That is one New Year resolution you cannot afford to break!