The 3 Hidden Expenses When You Move Into A New Home

There are a lot of things that you expect to have to do and pay for when you move into a new home. Many people already have a budget for things that they know will come up. For instance, closing costs are understood ahead of time. You will also expect to have to do a few upgrades at your own expense such as some of the light fixtures or paint the house to your liking.

There are some other expenses that you will likely not be expecting and those are hard to budget for if people don’t make you aware of them. This means that you could face some bills that throw a wrench in your plans since you hadn’t budgeted for them. In this article, we will go over several unexpected bills you are likely to face when you move into a new home so you are ready and can plan.

1 - HVAC system

Chances are very high that you will be moving into a house that has an old HVAC system. If this is the case then there is a risk that it is not working correctly. For instance, you may have viewed the house and made an offer in the summer so you never got to check if the heat worked. Or, if you made the offer in the winter you probably didn’t think of the air conditioner.

If either one of those scenarios happened to you then there will be repairs or maintenance needed to get it working properly otherwise you will be cold this winter. This can be quite expensive depending on what is needed to be fixed.

In fact, you may even need to replace it completely if it is too old. In the long run, this will save you money and if you have a home warranty from Select then you’re protected against repairs later on, but it will cost you a lot to replace in the meantime.

2 - Exterminator

When you do your walk-through of the house, things are presented in the best possible light. One thing that you may not see is the presence of pests. It probably won’t even enter your mind that there might have been some mice, or bed bugs in the house.

Those tell-tale signs would be covered up by the seller. Once you move in then this becomes your problem and you will likely need an exterminator to take care of it.

3 - Short term rental

There are times when the timing doesn’t work out from when you close the sale on your old house and close on the new one. When there is a sizable gap you’ll need to rent a place to stay while you wait for the keys.

This can be weeks sometimes and if you have a family then it will be expensive as you’ll need a large apartment or house for a short-term rental. It could even be that renovations that were supposed to be done before you move in are still not complete and you have to pay for a place to stay until it is ready to move in.