The recent events of this morning have shown me why we might not be ready to buy a house.
I said, “might” though, because I want an out, just in case we find “the one” (in which case, buying it would have to be cheaper than renting, because that’s kind of our criteria right now. I’m not willing to work too many more hours to pay for a house).
My dad woke up this morning to find that the garage carpet was flooded. So was our dining room.
He called the plumbers, already a hefty expense. For little stuff, he usually spends the whole day doing it himself. But when you have to immediately shut off the water for the entire house to avoid creating a pond where your cars used to park? Not so much.
Now, after a few hours of work, ripping out drywall and tearing down the garage shelves, they’ve discovered that the water heater needs to be replaced. And WOAH, are those things expensive! Over a thousand bucks! And the tough part is, you never really know when one’s “gonna go”.
So, us poor, potential homeowners that we are, have three options: one, always have an “emergency house repairs” fund set aside of at least $2500 (the avg. homeowner’s insurance deductible). Or, two: pay more in homeowner’s insurance every month so that the deductible isn’t so high. Or, three: don’t own a house that you have to pay homeowner’s insurance on.
Simple as that! Right? 😉
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Sorry to hear about the flooding! What a pain.
It’s true, if you own, you really have to set aside cash every month in case of repairs (or make a mental note that part of your savings is for that).
I wouldn’t feel comfortable owning a house unless we had an emergency fund or access to LEAST 4-6 months of expenses (utilities, insurance premiums, mortgage, gas/food) set aside which could help cover emergency repairs. And I have a husband who works in construction and can fix just about any roofing, electrical, plumbing, appliance issue. You just never know what will happen and relying on homeowners insurance isn’t always a safe bet because there is so much they won’t cover, and its not worth risking having your policy canceled if you do file a claim.
So much to save for! Downpayments, plus emergency funds for half a year? Good grief! Looks like we’ll never own a home!
Then again, if we weren’t paying close to 1k/month in student loans, perhaps?…. 😀