Everywhere you look, there are hidden costs in buying a home

Katherine and Robert McCartney thought they'd found the perfect first home in a 1,400-square-foot 1950s rambler in Boise, Idaho, a few years back. They thought they were getting a deal.

They actually were getting in way over their heads.

A few months after they bought the house, the couple had to move to Washington for work. But before they put the house on the market again, they spent thousands of dollars on a new roof, garbage disposal, paint job, window screens and sand for the oil furnace.

"We were just so grateful and so happy to have our own place that we didn't even consider all the problems," Katherine McCartney said. "Needing to put sand in an oil furnace to stop pressure from building — who thinks of that?"

In the process of buying and reselling quickly, they discovered one of the cardinal rules of homeownership: That cool condo or cozy craftsman likely will cost thousands more than you paid for it, most notably for maintenance and repairs, furniture and fixtures — expenses that buyers should plan on but don't.

"Welcome to homeownership," said Dick Pelascini, a Windermere real-estate agent who teaches first-time home-buying classes. "There's more that goes into that than you'd think."

What to expect


Moving from a 900-square-foot apartment to a 2,100-square-foot home could mean shopping for another bathroom and even more decorative items. Darcie Walser of Coldwell Banker Bain and Associates in Tacoma recommends that her clients pace themselves when it comes to filling the house. And don't forget about fees to turn on utilities.

In the bathroom

Four-towel set: $20

Two hand towels: $12

Midrange bathmat: $15

One simple shower curtain and rings: $16

Waste can: $15

Four-piece bathroom set, including a soap dish, drinking glass and soap dispensers: $10

Set of standard-size curtains: $30 to $70

Roman blinds: $20

A panel of simple curtain rods: $14 and $20

Buying enough at Ikea to stock one extra bathroom and cover 12 windows: $568

Appliances

Refrigerator: $400- $8,000

Washer and dryer: $600-$2,000

In the yard

New lawn mower: $50- $600

Garden-hose reel: $22 and $60

Garden hose: $13 and $22

Hedge sheers: $30

Push broom: $30

Garden tools: $56

Or to have an average yard mowed, edged and blown: $30 a visit

Maintenance and repairs

If you're used to picking up the phone and calling the on-site maintenance crew at your apartment complex, you have to figure on surprise runs to Home Depot or the hourly rate for plumbers on top of that monthly mortgage payment.

If you can't resist your own bit of green space, remember that lawn mowers run from $60 to $500, a hose can cost at least $22 and paying to have your yard mowed, edged and blown can run around $30 a visit.

It can cost $4,000 to replace a roof, which usually lasts 15 to 20 years, and $2,000 to $3,000 to repaint a house, something you'll have to do every five to seven years, Pelascini said.

"You know every weekend when you sit down with your Sunday paper and just instinctively throw out all those inserts from Home Depot and Lowe's?" Pelascini said. "From now on you're going to be looking at those things and saying to your spouse or partner, 'Hey, look — they've got a sale on hoses.' Things like hoses, wrenches and caulking are something you're going to have to plan for."

Largest outlays

Maintenance and repairs are probably the largest unexpected expenses for new homeowners.

"A lot of people are on really tight budgets and they stretch themselves so thin just to get into the house," said Jeff Caden, executive director of Washington Homeownership Center. "Then the heater goes out or the roof starts to leak, and they don't know what to do."

He says this happens to a lot of first-time home buyers " because they're often so young and early in their careers and don't have a lot of budget flexibility."

Caden recommends taking advantage of the variety of classes available to first-time and veteran homebuyers through the Washington Homeownership Center and local real-estate agencies.

No hard, fast rules

It's hard to give buyers a hard, fast rule for how much they should add to the budget for maintenance. It depends on a lot of variables, said Darcie Walser of Coldwell Banker Bain and Associates in Tacoma, including how old the home is, how well kept it is and how much you want to make on it when you turn around and sell it.

"One thing I try to emphasize to my clients is the importance of a good inspection," Walser said. "A quality inspector can cost $300 to $400, and people will try to save a hundred or two by going with someone cheaper, but if that person misses some of the bigger items, you could be out thousands down the road."

Furniture and fixtures

Although you're itching to move from that 900-square-foot apartment to a 2,200-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath neighborhood gem, don't forget that all that extra space can cost you.

A quick run to Ikea to stock up the extra bathroom and dress a dozen windows adds up to more than $500. Never mind the decorative accents and extra furniture.

Moderation is the key when it comes to spending money on decorations and supplies for your new home because things will pop up when you least expect them, Pelascini said.

The McCartneys had figured out their mortgage and gone through the lending process. They'd been renting the house for a year and thought they knew what they were getting.

"Some of the things we knew about — like the garbage disposal that was broken when we got there and the missing screens on the windows," Katherine McCartney said. "We didn't think it was a big deal, but what we didn't realize is it may be to the next person."

The whole process was so discouraging that the McCartneys have rented since moving to Olympia and only recently decided they're ready to start shopping for a home again.

Words of wisdom

While many buyers take into account loan fees and closing costs, they don't always know those fees differ from lender to lender.

Compare those costs and find a good lender to save yourself from high loan fees and a great deal of aggravation.

Ask Dan and Kelly Choma of Snoqualmie.

"We never expected our closing costs to be so high and our lender just wasn't helpful," Kelly Choma said. "We got stuck, and he wouldn't return our calls and really wasn't there for us. Next time we're going to ask friends to recommend a good, local lender."

Learn as much as you can about the process, the home and the team you work with — agent, lender and inspector. Worries that something will go wrong shouldn't stop you from buying a home.

"There are horror stories out there and issues that can pop up, but as long as you educate yourself and have a good, solid team to help you, there's no reason you can't own your own place," Walser said.

Heather Rae Darval is a Seattle-area freelance writer: heather_rae@fastmail.fm.