The “Joys” of Ownership

Last year my husband and I bought my in-laws’ home down in Southern California, and so we have been homeowners for 7.5 months now officially.   We have a really nice family living there now and for the most part things have been going smoothly, but there have been a few headaches that we’ve never encountered before.

First, the neighbors next door has completely neglected their backyard.  This isn’t exactly something we could fix because we can’t just jump over their fence, pluck out all the weeds, and clean their green pool.   I have contacted the public health department regarding their pool because you could see the green and brown slosh from SPACE via satellite photos and it can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  I’m not sure if it got cleaned up yet but they did get a ticket from the county.  They also have a couple psycho little dogs that barks day and night because they are probably not being fed.

Next, this weekend our home caretakers called us and told us that the water heater broke and it would cost over $1000 to replace it.   The water heater is over 20 years old so I guess it was its time.  It sprung a leak and damaged the garage’s wall a little bit, too.  We had the money to replace it in our emergency fund, but it was still an unpleasant surprise.  So I started researching a bit into our insurance policy and I read on the internet that this sort of thing is usually covered by home warranty policies.

I do vaguely remember that in escrow last year my inlaws purchased a one year warranty for us, so it is definitely still valid now, but I was at work so I couldn’t dig through my mountain of home-related paperwork to see what company held the policy.  So I called the realtor that took care of the transaction and she told me right away what the warranty company was and the plan number.

I called the warranty company and our insurance company to see what we could do about it, and the warranty company said they would cover the water heater replacement and the insurance company said they would cover water damage on the drywall.  The warranty company sent a plumber within 4 hours of my call and replaced the water heater, and they also checked out the drywall and said it is drying enough that it doesn’t need to be replaced.  Both my hubby and I were very relieved because we didn’t want the family living there to be without hot water for a very long time.  They have been showering in cold water for a couple days now.

It seems that my husband and I are the type of people who are unlucky (or lucky) enough to get the most out of insurances and warranties, so we are considering extending the home warranty when it expires considering that this time it did save us a bunch of money.  So I guess the lesson here is to be aware what your home warranty and insurance covers and does not cover.  If I hadn’t remembered that we had a warranty then we would have paid for the repair out of pocket.  Also, another obvious point is that owning a home is a lot more trouble than just renting.

I definitely do not regret buying the home with the hubby, but I guess things like these make me realize how big of a responsibility it is.    I think we are pretty both realistic about the fact that we will not make money from the house and we simply bought it to keep it in the family.  I do see the house as a backup plan for possible high inflation because we are locked into a 4.875% fixed rate, and there is a possibility that we would move down there.  So as stupid as it sounds, there is definitely a little bit of joy in knowing that after fifteen or so years we will own a piece of real estate free and clear.

Anyway, we are happy the current problem is fixed, and now we are more aware of what to do the next time something like this happens.  I think when we were young our parents took care of a lot of things like these with their homes, and we did not even know or care that much.  Live and learn I guess.

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