Prioritizing

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What to do first? This decision can be difficult for first-time homeowners. It’s tempting to make cosmetic improvements, such as installing new wallpaper or carpeting, because these changes are sometimes the most visible.

But part of the responsibility of owning a home is prioritizing your projects and considering the improvements that are likely to increase your home’s value — or decrease your expenses.

For example, it may be better to replace an aging oil furnace with an energy-efficient gas furnace before you purchase new carpeting for the living room. Only you can decide which projects should take priority, but it’s important to anticipate the problems that may arise (such as a leaking roof or a dying water heater) that would be more important than improvements you may want to make (like new carpeting).

The best way to anticipate problems is to inspect your home regularly and perform certain routine maintenance tasks. Refer to the Home Maintenance Checklist (.pdf), which covers the items you should inspect. It also identifies some specific maintenance tasks that should be performed and how often you should do them.

If you have the skills to do some or all of this work yourself, you will still need to budget for any tools or materials that you will need. If you’re not especially handy, you can use this checklist to predict the work that will need to be done so that you can also budget enough to hire someone to do it.