Buying a home for the first time comes with costs that most buyers do not see coming. A new study found that nearly three-quarters of new homeowners spend roughly $10,000 on unexpected repairs within the first two years of owning their property.
According to Yahoo Finance, the research comes from Jobber, a provider of home service software. The study found that 93 percent of Americans say they are pleased to own a home, but 58 percent discovered unanticipated repair needs right after moving in. Seventy-two percent of newly minted homeowners said they spent about $10,000 on unexpected fixes within two years of buying.
The repairs that hit hardest are rarely visible during a home tour. Real estate professionals interviewed for the report pointed to aging infrastructure as the most common source of surprise bills.
"Most surprises are seldom cosmetic," Alexei Morgado, a Florida-based real estate agent and founder of Lexawise, a digital real estate exam preparation platform, told Moneywise. "They're related to the age of roofing systems, heating and air conditioning units, water heaters, plumbing or electrical systems, and insurance deductibles."
Those systems often fail around the same time because they were installed together when the house was built. A buyer inheriting a 20-year-old home may face a roof, water heater, and HVAC system all approaching the end of their useful lives simultaneously.
Daniel Amodeo, president of Boston-based Amo Realty, said the root of the problem is a narrow focus on mortgage payments during the buying process. "The biggest mistake first-time buyers make is assuming that if they can afford the mortgage payment, they can afford homeownership," he told Moneywise.
Amodeo recommended that buyers protect themselves with cash reserves at closing. "I always tell buyers to leave the closing table with a healthy emergency fund because it's usually not a question of if something will break, but when," he said.
Wyatt Simon, founder of Omaha Home Advisors, pointed to experience as the key gap. "First-time homebuyers often lack the experience to understand the surprise expenses," he told Moneywise.
The study also captured what buyers wish they had known. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they would warn future buyers to pad the household repair budget with more cash than they think they will need. That advice reflects a pattern the industry sees repeatedly: buyers who budget carefully for the purchase price and closing costs find themselves unprepared when the first major system fails.
