First Time Home Buyers (FTHB): Avoid These Expensive Mistakes

When purchasing a home, buyers want a plethora of renovations and upgrades because the previous owner’s tastes and yours are likely not the same. Most often, only a small portion of mentioned items make it on the renovation list. Let’s tackle some of the do’s and do not upgrades after you buy your first home. Not all upgrades are made equal!

Caveat: These are just my opinions (and some satire!) and what I would personally do. Don’t let my opinions persuade you to otherwise decorate or design your home the way you want! If you have the means to make certain upgrades because you really want it, please do so. I’m not stopping you!

Time vs Money:

Before diving into the blog post itself, I think its important to ask yourself: Are you doing the renovations yourself or are you contracting out the work? For some owners, time and convenience is the name of the game. For some others, they like to get their hands dirty. You must realize that renovating a home yourself or even with a contractor, can take longer than anticipated. You must also be willing to accept having an inoperable kitchen or a temporarily dirty bathroom or living in a dusty home. It certainly is not for everyone and if you’ve already made it to the renovation part, you’ll soon realize if you love or hate the work involved that comes with home renovation. If you want to avoid renovating anything, purchase any home built 2010 or newer. Personally, I love doing renovations because there’s so much to learn and seeing the end product will make it that much more fulfilling.

Laminate vs Luxury Vinyl Plank vs Hardwood Flooring

If the home you purchased doesn’t have wood floors, please don’t purposely buy wood flooring. Wood flooring’s number one enemy is water moisture. Therefore, no wood flooring in kitchens. Period. This includes any kind of laminate, engineered and especially hard wood floors.

Instead, opt for water proof materials such as vinyl planks. They come in a variety of shapes: planks, squares, full sheets (for kitchens)… and styles: stick on, glue down, floating. Not to mention, they’re a cheaper option than engineered and hard wood floors. Beware of laminate flooring (sometimes called Pergo, the brand) as the main substrate of the product is medium density fiberboard (MDF) and essentially wood pulp with some glue. Hint: It’ll blow up like a balloon with any trace of moisture!

Pro Life Tip: Water Damage Prevention

Whether it be a small leak or catastrophic, one of the worst nightmares for any home owner is a water leak or water line break. Take these simple steps to create a buffer or advance notice to water leaks:

Cabinets

Almost every brand new home you walk into has shaker cabinets or Ikea cabinets (identified by their iconic twist n’ lock screws). They look so simple yet beautiful and probably painted white with a light sheen. These are the cheapest, yet aesthetically pleasing, cabinets you’ll find from a cabinet distributor. They aren’t even made of solid wood – they’re actually made of medium density fiberboard (MDF), basically wood pulp with some glue.

If you’re looking to upgrade your cabinets, get these ones. Don’t go for the custom solid wood cabinets made of oak, or cherry, or another fancy wood. I can guarantee you the next home owner won’t pay a premium because of the cabinets you’ve installed.

Countertops

Don’t buy custom counter tops from stores like “Big Blue” or “Big Orange”. Visit your local countertop distributor store and either buy a whole slab, then hire a contractor to cut to specific dimensions OR if you’re not picky about the specific color or vein patterns, the MOST COST EFFECTIVE method is to buy pre-fabricated slabs manufactured and shipped from China. The sizes are universal so they fit with any type of cabinet countertop – the only adjustments are the widths of the slabs dictated by the amount of cabinets you have. The counter depth is always the same length for generic cabinets so no adjustments are needed for depth.

Granite…Quartz…Soapstone…Marble…Concrete…Butcher Block?!

There are so many choices when it comes to countertop materials. Cost efficiency wise, granite is your best option. However, it’s a porous stone so it can stain easily and needs to be sealed periodically. I like quartz even though its slightly more expensive – it is NON-porous, can come in monochromatic colors (no vein streaks), easier maintenance. For high end homes, I’d suggest Cararra marble or soapstone countertops – it’s definitely a premium stone, but once installed, look luxurious and serve as an excellent accent piece for your home. As a porous stone, it needs to be sealed periodically as well.

Bathroom Renovations

The costs to renovate a bathroom can vary wildly due to the scope of work. If you’re planning to build a fully tiled shower, DON’T. Just buy an enclosed shower set. You won’t need to float the flooring (to install the tile), plus, its much less risky because a botched contractor job can do a lot more damage via a fully tiled shower than a pre-built set. Even with the slightest incorrect workmanship on the shower flooring, 10 years of water slowly leaking through the flooring into your wood framing is just asking for wood rot and mold.

And if you have the space, install a fiberglass bathtub. Because you just love tiles, you can tile the surrounding wall up to the ceiling and voila, you have tiles!

A side note: Don’t underestimate the savings from installing a new low-flush toilet. It’ll pay itself off over time in the form of less water used. If you didn’t know, Seattle charges some of the highest water/sewage utilities rates in the nation.

Smoke Detectors

Let’s face it, some of us are lazy. I always choose the 10-year-life smoke detectors over the 9v battery detectors. Replacing the 9v batteries twice a year is recommended, but I always forget! It’s obviously more expensive to buy the 10-year detectors, but if you factor in the cost of the batteries and convenience, it’s worth every penny. If you do opt for 9v battery operated detectors, remember to replace the batteries every daylight savings.

Upgrading Windows: Single Pane to Double Pane

Does your home become extremely hot in the summer or chillingly cold in the winter? Chances are your home is not properly insulated. Upgrading windows costs an average of $500-$1,000+ per window for materials and labor. A typical home will have 15-25 windows… do the calculations and you get the point. It’s expensive! Depending on how long you plan to live in the home, you won’t need to upgrade your windows. Why? Old homes almost NEVER have insulation in the walls and the insulation in the attic is slim to none. If you don’t have insulation in your walls or attic, double pane windows are useless.

If you plan to live in the home long term, have new insulation blown into your home’s wall cavities and attic. For my home it cost a total of about $4,000 to do both walls and attic insulation. If you have outdated sources of heating such as Oil, plan to modernize it with Natural Gas if available from your street. If none available, consider using a Heat Pump which can do both A/C and heating and is extremely energy efficient.

Every type of insulation (window, attic, siding, even drywall), has an R-Value. R-value directly correlates to how well the material can insulate against heat or cold and the required thickness of the material used. Below is a list of industry standards for types of insulation. As you can see, windows don’t provide much cost-to-benefit.

• Attic Insulation: R-30 to R-49
• Wall Insulation: R-13 to R-23
• Single Pane Window: less than R-1
• Double Pane Window: R-3
• Triple Pane Window: R-5 to R-9(very expensive!)

Every home’s weakness is at the windows. About 40% of your home’s total heat loss will come from the windows. How do you provide more cost effective method to bolster the R-Value for your windows? I use a combination of cellular shades and heavy curtain drapes. Since the cold air against your window tends to suck the heat from your home, cellular shades and drapes do a good job blocking the convective heat loss. Standard cellular shades set you back about $75 each for an average sized window.

Summary

The bottom line is, you don’t want to make the costly mistake in what you buy as a first time home buyer so I figure lets take a real estate agent and investor’s point of view in terms of what to choose and what not to choose. Ask yourself what creates the most value and what doesn’t and go from there. As always, these are just my opinions and partly for your entertainment. Its your house to enjoy, not mine!