Home Maintenance

[Wannabe Mustache]

How much do you put aside monthly/yearly for home maintenance.  Gail Vaz-Oxlade (Canadian money writer / show host) says 3-5 % of the value of the home.  That's a lot!  3% is $500/month on a $200,000 home.

What do you think?

[shusherstache]

Having been in a 50-year-old home for two years, I'd say that's just about right.  Granted, I don't do my own plumbing or tilework - but I do almost everything else.

Things break, especially on older homes.  We are saving up for a total replumb in the future, for example, which is a few years of that 500/month right away.

[AJ]

I use 1% of the value of the home as my budget for maintenance and repairs. Upgrades are in addition to that. YMMV by location and age of the home.

[shusherstache]

I'll agree - 1% for immediate repairs should be considered the minimum.  The other portion of that 1-2% that I calculated was due to repairs being made before things totally collapsed (not breakfix, but pending issues), energy upgrades and maybe 20% vanity repairs on top (most of which we completed ourselves).

[tooqk4u22]

I do $300/month. 

Using a percentage of value is not the best method - a 1000 sf house in rural indiana may cost $80k whereas a 1000 sf house in san fransisco could be $1mil - assuming same general age and condition the repairs will be about the same. 

Effective age of the house matters - you may have a 60 year old house but everything has been repaired upgraded in the last 10 years so the effective age is much lower.

Actual Age of house matters - a sewer line will break down eventually as will other things that aren't on a typical replacement cycle.

Size of house matters - bigger the size the more that can go wrong and more materials to fix it, also if you have multiple zones you may two heating/ac units.

Age of various appliances. 

Even if you have a brand new house - guess what, 10 years from now shit will start breaking.

[GoStumpy]

Took me a few tries to realize everyone is talking about 1% ANNUALLY, divide by 12, and there's the monthly...  I suppose that makes sense...

The 3% definitely includes upgrades, reflooring, siding, new roof, etc... a new roof can be $10k+ easily, so at $500/mo it takes two years to save up for a roof...

If I was ignoring upgrades, I think 1% is good for maintenance....

[Wannabe Mustache]

Thanks all.  The house is 80 years old but was renovated about 7 years ago.  $500 / month is a lot for me right now and I'd rather put extra money to debt.  I think I'll go with 1% until the debt is paid down and will re-evaluate then.