Ask the REALTOR: How much cash should I set aside for repairs after I buy a home?

Ask the REALTOR® is a regular video series in which I answer your most commonly-asked real estate questions. If YOU have a real estate question that needs an answer, drop me a note here.

This week’s question: How much cash should I set aside for repairs after I buy a home? Here’s the answer in this brief video, and don’t miss the transcript below.

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Transcript:

Hi, this is Cari McGee with Keller Williams Tri-Cities, and welcome to this week’s episode of Ask the Realtor! Not every week, but every so often, I answer questions from buyers and sellers and pretty much everyone in between regarding real estate.

This one comes to us from Sherry L. who asked, “How much money should I set aside as a buyer for things that may go wrong with my home in the first couple of months of living there?”

This is a fantastic question and not something that a lot of people think about, because usually you get all your money together for buying your home and then you think, “Whew, I’m set.”

Well, sometimes, things crop up that either you don’t have a home warranty in place to cover those things or the home warranty doesn’t cover those things, and therefore, you are in a situation where you need to come up with a lot of money pretty darn fast. Sometimes, an example of this would be a water heater going bad or a home … excuse me, a heater or an air conditioner all of a sudden going belly up and you’ve got to replace that and get that taken care of. It is your responsibility now because you are a homeowner.

So the best suggestion is to have as much money set aside as you possibly can. Don’t think that just because you got into the home, now all your money that you have coming in can go to wherever you want it to be. I would advise, go ahead and start to save up as quickly as you can as much as you can because now that you’re a homeowner, guess what? All of those things that go on, they’re your responsibility. So be sure to start to build up that nest egg of ready cash so that in the event something happens, you’re covered.

Thanks so much for your question, Sherry. And I hope you all have a fantastic day. Bye!