Now that you’ve taken the big step to purchase a brand new home, it’s important to maintain your investment. Since it is new, you luckily won’t have any repairs to do right away. But you should take the necessary steps to keep things working and looking their best for as long as possible. Follow our tips to keeping your new house in tip top shape! 

Keep the Outside Nice – From the front door to the driveway to the porch, ensure you keep everything looking as tidy on the outside as you do on the inside. Don’t let planting beds get overrun with leaves and weeds, trim your trees regularly and be sure to clean up any driveway messes, like oil stains or paint marks, right away to keep them from permanently staining the concrete. 

Repair Items as Needed – If something breaks…well…fix it! The longer you go without repairing any broken item, the worse it may become. Nip the problem in the bud and try not to do them cheaply. In the long run, spending a little more money on a certified or qualified service person may be the difference between something being fixed once or not correctly at all. 

Train Your Pets Well – Nothing says “a dog lives here” like hair balls and scratched wood floors. Do whatever necessary to train your pets to behave indoors and not to destroy all the hard work and money you put into your home. The cost involved to fix what Fido or Felix wrecked can be way more costly than a good training session with a pet professional. 

Keep it Clean – Scrub, dust, vacuum and wash on a regular weekly and seasonal basis. If you wait too long between deep cleans, some messes and stains can be either difficult or impossible to remove, essentially bringing the value of your home down. Stay on top of tasks like window cleaning, baseboard wiping, dusting in the corners and power washing. 

Keep it Safe – Probably the most important way to keep the value of your home is to ensure its safety. Avoid fire hazards by performing regular maintenance on projects such as cleaning out the dryer vent, servicing your HVAC components, changing the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and keeping fire extinguishers on hand and fully charged (hint: Check the pressure gauge. You want the needle to point within the green area.) 

The excitement of stepping into your new house doesn’t have to ease with time. By keeping it well maintained, safe and clean, you’ll be able to have that ‘just moved in’ feeling over and over again! Lucky for you San Joaquin Valley Homes has lots of homes and communities ready to be lived in. You can start fresh with a new house and put all these practices to good measure.