Whether you’re looking to purchase a home in Edina, Minnetonka or the Twin Cities (Minneapolis or St. Paul) it’s important to understand the average cost of time and maintenance it takes to keep up on your home.

Let’s say you qualify for a $500,000 mortgage and you’re looking at a home that costs that much. Most people aren’t thinking about that it’s not just $500,000, it’s the cost of the interest payment you pay every year for thirty years plus on average 1%-4% homeowners spend a year on maintenance for there home. That means between $5000 – $20,000 every year you should budget to keep up with your home maintenance. If you weren’t aware of that those numbers will probably come as a bit of shock to you. Those numbers are based on the national average of what homeowners have to spend every year  on their homes maintenance.

Now, let’s take a look at the time it takes to keep up on your home. If you’re a homeowner in Minneapolis or Minnetonka you probably have a big beautiful lawn that will need the grass cut once a week for 5 months out of the year and then you’ll need to do snow removal for another 4-5 months. If you choose to do this yourself you’ll need to take 1-2 hours every week to do this. Which for a lot of people is a lot of time out of there week to do this all year around. Life is busy and doing maintenance isn’t always enjoyable, but it’s important to know whether you pay someone else to do it or take it on yourself, it’s important to keep up on.

Lawn mowing and snow removal are just the beginning of home maintenance that are going to need to be taken care of throughout the year. At Tomms, we also recommend clearing your gutters at least once a year, but twice is best. The fall time in Minneapolis and St. Paul has big beautiful trees that are shedding there leaves and that lands in peoples gutters. Proper drainage is important so you don’t cause your home more maintenance issues. There is so much that unfortunately needs to be kept on with homes. The list can feel daunting and never ending, but mentally preparing yourself and understanding that keeping up on your homes maintenance will save you so much time and MONEY in the long run.

Whether it’s plumbing, electrical, snow removal, lawn care, gutter cleaning, appliance maintenance – Tomms can help.