The other day I was pumping gas and met a person who I greeted with a good morning and  how are you? The person replied, “I’m old.”   

I replied you look good and he said, everything with his body was in poor shape and hurting. 

I got into my car and thought about aging, getting old. Isn’t getting old, aging, what everything in the world experiences? People, animals, plants, food, etc.? We ask the good Lord through our prayers to keep us, our family, friends and relatives healthy, and free of accidents, so we can live a long life? Then, He answers our prayers and we get old. Isn’t that what we asked for? Everything that ages will experience changes — our looks, our size, (that’s really bad, as we all know) our health, and how we just look at life.

We have all been given the opportunity to help us get old gracefully and experience less pain and physical change as we age. Doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, dentists and many others are there to keep us healthy and at our best. We go to gyms, take vitamins, see our beauticians, hoping this will help us through our aging years.   

Think about this. How fortunate we are to be living in today’s world. We can replace most body parts and go on enjoying life and being pain free. 

So, my dear readers, how does this all relate to real estate?

Aging! Everything ages and gets old. We all try to slow down the aging process by giving it a little help. This is what we have to do when we own a home. 

Compare your home to yourself. We take good care of ourselves so we can live longer. Doesn’t it make sense to repair and replace everything in your home that needs attention?

We cannot express enough how important it is keeping your home in tip-top condition. When we get our clients top dollar for their homes, many times we see the reduction they take because the home inspection brings in numerous things in need of repair. The seller will have to spend the money to make repairs or take a reduction on the price.   

Pride of ownership is the number reason people enjoy owning their own homes. It provides a sense of security and equity.  

According to U.S. News and Freddie Mac, homebuyers should actually budget up to 4% of the property’s value in annual maintenance costs. That’s $12,000 for a $300,000 home or $1,000 per month. If you have a home worth $1M, expect maintenance to be up to $3,333 per month. (July 9, 2021)

Take good care of yourself and your home. What a great investment both can be! 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:   Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now. (Jack Kerouac)