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Tips for New Homeowners: Home Maintenance You MUST Remember! - YouTube
Channel: Wise Move AZ
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Did you just buy a house?! Congratulations!
In this video I've got 10 home
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maintenance tips for
new homeowners. This is the list I wish I
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got when I bought my first house. So,
hopefully you can learn from my mistakes
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and oversights!
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If this is your first time here, welcome!
If you've been here before thank you so
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much for coming back and for spending
your time with me.
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My name is Lindsay and I'm a proud
Anthem resident and your local REALTOR庐
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with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group.
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On this channel we have a lot of fun
talking about all things Anthem
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and real estate, every single Thursday
and we absolutely love having you
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along for the ride. First off, before we
jump into the home maintenance list,
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I want to take a second to
wholeheartedly congratulate you
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on buying a house. That's huge! You should
be so proud of yourself, because no
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matter who you are,
or where you are, this undoubtedly took
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some sacrifice on your part. When we
bought our first house I was
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so nervous and excited, and oh my
goodness did we have our work cut out
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for us!
I had so much to learn about owning a
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house.
Growing up I lived in rentals which
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means that all of the big maintenance
items were handled by the property
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manager.
On top of that, I grew up outside of
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North America where the construction of
homes was
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very different than what we have here.
Thankfully my husband is extremely handy
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and he had
a great handle on everything that needed
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to be done... oh and
lots of YouTube videos! Thank goodness
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for YouTube!
Anyways, all of this is a long way of
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saying that I had no clue what I was
doing when we first bought our house
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and I have learned so much. What I want
to share with you today
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is a list of things that you might
overlook when you first buy your house.
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These are preventative maintenance items
that don't take a lot of work but can
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save you a ton of money down the road.
I'll also share a bonus maintenance item
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at the end of this video, that I
literally just learned when I was doing
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the research for this video. That's right,
this home ownership business
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is a new adventure every day! #1: Clean the gutters.
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This one is so important. For me our
gutters were kind of
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out of sight, out of mind. Ideally, I think
that you would have your gutters checked
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and cleaned
twice a year. Failing that, in Arizona you
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really need to do it before the start of
monsoon season. Your gutters play a
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really
important role in diverting water away
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from your home.
If they're not properly cared for or
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cleaned you could experience
flooding. If you have any trees that are
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close to the gutter or that drop debris
in them
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you may want to consider having them
removed, or at the very least having them
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trimmed back.
#2: Check your roof. Here in
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Anthem we have tile roofs.
We're usually looking to see if there
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are any crack tiles,
missing tiles, cracked mortar packs, or
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evidence of birds. If you spot any of
these you're going to want to have
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a roofer or a handyman out to the
property to make the repairs.
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I am so hesitant to recommend that you
get up and walk around on your roof.
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One, because it's dangerous and two,
because you need to know what you're
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doing if you're going to walk around on
a tile roof.
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It's way too easy to jump up there and
crack a tile.
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If you're not going up on your roof, hire
a professional
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or consider using a drone to fly over
and have a look.
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#3: Drain your hot water heater. By taking
the time to properly care for your hot
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water heater you can greatly extend its
life.
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Sediment can build up in the tank and
draining it helps to flush that sediment
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out.
We did a whole video on how to drain
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your hot water heater,
and trust me if I can do it, you can
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definitely do it.
So, I will link to that in the cards in
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case you want to check it out. You can
read the owner's manual for your
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particular model but typically doing
this once per year is sufficient.
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#4: HVAC servicing. Having your
heating, ventilation, and cooling system
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serviced is so important. I haven't been
brave enough to try tackling this one
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myself yet, though.
We just hire a local company that comes
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out,
takes a look, and does any repairs or
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adjustments, as needed. We have our units
serviced once per year and it's been
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running really well.
I've been in an Arizona house in the
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middle of the summer when the AC
died and it's not pretty. So, we just do
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everything we can to prolong the life of
our equipment.
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#5: Change your filters. If you're like me
you may not have realized that your home
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came with so many filters. You need to
change the filters on your HVAC system,
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your fridge, and your reverse osmosis
system (if you have one).
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You also need to be cleaning the filter
in your dishwasher. For the HVAC system, I
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was told that it's better to use a
cheaper filter
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and change it once per month rather than
opting for the more expensive filters
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that require less changing.
As for the fridge and the reverse
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osmosis system, you're going to want to
consult your owner's manual for the
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filter replacement schedule. With respect
to the dishwasher filter the best advice
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I ever got was from the salesperson who
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sold my parents their new dishwasher.
He said that we should take out our
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filters and clean them
every time the light on the dishwasher
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comes on to remind us to add rinse agent.
Ever since then, that's been my go-to and
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so far, so good. #6: Clean your
dryer vent. This one
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I definitely knew about before we bought
a house. I saw those
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infomercials for the Lint Lizard where
the house was on fire because somebody
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forgot to clean the dryer vent!
Depending on how your home is laid out
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and where the dryer vent is located,
you may be able to clean it out on your
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own. If you can't reach the outlet
or if you don't have the right equipment
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to get all the way through,
I strongly recommend that you hire a
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professional. This one
is a serious safety hazard if ignored.
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#7: Service your smoke alarms. Speaking of
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things that are a safety risk, you need
to test your smoke detectors
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and your carbon monoxide detectors. The US Fire Administration recommends
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that you test your smoke alarms once per
month, by pressing the test button.
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I definitely haven't been great about
doing this every month.
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So, you can guess what i'll be doing as
soon as i turn off the camera!
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Also, smoke alarms should be replaced
every 10 years.
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You can usually find the date of
manufacture on the back of your smoke
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alarm. If it's more than 10 years old,
replace it. #8: Test your water
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pressure.
Did you know that water pressure that's
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too high can damage your fixtures?
Having to replace all of your plumbing
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fixtures would get
really expensive, really quickly. You can
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get a water pressure gauge for less than
$20.
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You want your water pressure to be
between 40 and 60
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psi. If your water pressure is too low
or too high, you'll likely want to
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consult with a plumber.
#9: Service your garage door. No
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word of a lie,
I have the worst luck when it comes to
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garage doors. Everywhere I
have ever lived, where we've had a garage,
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we've had problems with the doors,
without fail! Having been on both sides, I
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can't decide if it was worse having the
car stuck
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inside the garage or having the car
outside the garage and the doors stuck
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halfway open and needing to get to a
meeting in a hurry. If you don't maintain
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your garage door
it will break at some point. I recommend
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having it serviced once per year
or if it starts to make a funny noise.
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Don't ignore any weird noises! In the meantime, you can
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lubricate the springs with an
inexpensive can of garage door lubricant.
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#10: Prevent Pests. Some pests are
just a nuisanc,e while others like
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termites or pigeons can cause serious
damage to your home.
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Termites are definitely something that
we need to watch out for
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here in Arizona. In fact, we did a whole
video on how to prevent termites
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and the steps you need to take every
year to save yourself from a big repair
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bill.
If you'd like to check that out, I will
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link to it in the cards for this video.
You need to find out what types of pests
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are common in your area,
if they can cause damage to your home,
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and how to prevent them.
Alright, I promised you a bonus
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maintenance tip, too, right?
Well, when I was doing my research for
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this video, I came across an article that
recommended that you clean your
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refrigerator coils.
What?! That's right. Dust can accumulate
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around the coils and
shorten the lifespan of your fridge. Now,
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where the coils are located will depend
on your fridge model. So,
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guess what I'm doing this weekend. So,
there you have it! If you're looking for
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more home maintenance
ideas or things that you should be
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looking out for,
I strongly recommend that you read
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through your inspection reports in
detail.
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These reports contain so much valuable
information,
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way beyond just the things that need
immediate attention in your home.
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What project do you think you'll tackle
first? Was there anything on this list
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that you were surprised to hear?
If you found this video helpful let me
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know by hitting that like button,
subscribing to our channel, and leaving
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me a comment. Lastly, if you'd like to
check out the video I mentioned
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on how to drain your hot water heater
you can click up here
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or if you're interested in learning ways
to save energy
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and money at home, click to watch this
video on the bottom.
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Enjoy those and I'll see you next
Thursday!
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