What's Next After Buying a Home?
Hey, it’s Treasure Valley Dave here in Nampa, Idaho. Are you wondering what’s next after becoming a homeowner? We’ve listed the steps a homeowner should take after buying a home.
If you still need to get our booklet, make sure you go ahead and download it here. The booklet contains some powerful information to help you in the homeownership process.
Next Steps for New Homeowners
The first step you need to do is file for your homeowners exemption. In Idaho, if you’re the homeowner living in the home, you get an exemption, which knocks a significant amount off your property tax bill. Please don’t put it off and then forget about it.
The second thing you want to do is a mailing address update. Updating your mailing address could be with your magazines and stuff, but also with different government places like the DMV and Social Security Office.
The next thing to do is to get your voter registration done. You can do that on the post office website, too.
You can also start and get to know your neighborhood and community. Often, there will be community little gatherings, little barbecues, picnics, and stuff. If there aren’t, then step up and do one of those. The people here in Idaho are just the nicest people. You would not assume that California has friendly people, but many friendly people from there moved to Idaho.
Most Important Thing to Do as a Homeowner
One of the most important things you need to do is to protect your investment property. Do your routine maintenance. We’ve all heard of what we’re supposed to do, like change your furnace filters and keep things away from your air conditioning unit. Cleaning your gutters out is an excellent thing to do in the fall.
Keep an eye on things, too, as you’re doing stuff in your house. For instance, I noticed a sprinkler had water coming up on the siding of my house. So, I went out there and made a minor adjustment. If you wait for years, it could be a costly repair.
Make sure the ground is sloping away as it comes up to the foundation of your house. That will help the water slope out and keep water from having a better chance of penetrating your foundation and getting into your crawl space.
It would help if you kept your receipts of repairs for improvements. If it comes time to sell your house, some of those have tax implications, meaning a good thing for you.
How Does Treasure Valley Dave Help?
Enjoying service for a lifetime is what you get with the Treasure Valley Dave team. We have all sorts of people in our toolbox that we can refer out to you for your furnace, your roof, your landscaping, etc.
If you need help doing your maintenance, we have all sorts of resources for you. We have a handyman, a roofer, a gutter guy, and all kinds of people you will need for maintenance. Don’t let something slip too long just because you need more time or the skills to do it.
If you have a great experience with somebody who did something for you, a handyman, something around the house, or a great restaurant, share that. We can share it with other people when they reach out.
We also have our community where our past clients and people who will one day be our past clients. We have a closed Facebook group, Idahoans at Heart, which you’re more than welcome to join and start talking with people.
How We Deal With Changes
As time passes, things in your life might change, or you might want to know what’s going on with the value of your house. You might need a home equity line of credit, or you might want to add a new garage bay. We put together a fantastic home value report just for your house to give you an idea of what kind of equity you have.
You may also be interested in investment property, and you need to get into a different-sized home. You can use your existing home as a rental. We’ve got people in our toolbox who are professional property managers who can go through the pros and cons with you on what it’s like to turn your house into a rental.
We’ve got people that can answer your questions and help you make a plan on that. If you run across a friend, family member, or someone at church or work who brings up buying or selling a home have them reach out to us at 208-860-2004 because we got your stuff all in one sock.
