You've gotta feed the beast!

​A home inspection will not reveal every problem that exists in the home (I call houses beasts), but only those that are observed at the time of the inspection and some things don’t become observable until they break.  I can’t tell you how many things in the past 18 months have broken for me around my house.  (Just a few that pop to mind are: Failed sump pump and water damage to basement, failed seal at skylight and mold,  furnace and AC issues, pump motor died, the crazy weather has caused water to come in my basement where it never has before, a refrigerator died, a dishwasher broke and outside of the house my wife's car died) all these were unexpected, one day they were okay- the next day they weren’t- and they all cost me $$$$. 
 
Life as the owner of a beast (house) is full of joys and burdens and it really sucks the first time you get saddled with an unexpected repair or expense for the house (beast) you haven't owned very long.  It sounds cliche, but "Welcome to owning a beast"  Repairs and responsibility are the two primary reasons some people opt to stay renters- they don't want either when it comes to where they live.
 
Did you know that the average single family home (beast) requires about $3000 a year for maintenance and repairs, that’s a weighted average, so some years its more and other years its less, but this figure doesn’t include making improvements to a property, which have their own expenses.
 
Try to think of house repairs as the food required by your beast's stomach (your house is an investment)-  growing pains often hurt, but they make the investment grow.  You’re paying for them today (and it sucks), but chances are statistically pretty good that you’ll get your money back and then some when you eventually sell your house (investment).  I lived in my last house for about ten years.  Over the span of those years I spent an average of $3500 per year on house repairs and some improvements, but when I sold that beast, I got all that money back and it was like I never paid any rent! (The average rent in that neighborhood was about $1400/ month at the time and I lived there 10 years- that’s  $168,000 that I saved) and the house was way better than when I found it- it was a win / win situation. 
 
This is why that despite having unexpected expenses (repairs) from time to time, you as the owner of a house are still gonna be way better off than when you gave your cash to a landlord…..feed the beast, yes a house is a beast.  ;)