Trying to avoid those expensive and stressful emergency home repairs? Well, if you’re a homeowner, you are far better off putting that effort into preparing for them. Having a solid plan for paying for those repairs, knowing who to call for help, and how to lower your own costs can help you avoid panic when issues pop up without warning. So, before the next thing breaks or goes wrong with your home, be sure to take these helpful planning steps.

Put Some Funds Aside for Emergency Home Repairs

Investing money in an emergency home repair fund is always smart. Aside from paying for unexpected home repair costs, saving more money can also help out with routine home maintenance expenses. This prevents you from dipping into other savings or financial means to cover those costs. While most homeowners are safe setting aside a small percentage of their home value, major home repair costs can quickly become expensive.

Find Simple Ways to Stick to Your Savings Goals

To make building your savings simple, look for easy savings steps that will help you tuck away small amounts into your account. Set up an automatic transfer or look for ways to invest your savings and grow your emergency home repair reserves even faster. Using these smart saving tips can help homeowners with future repairs, but if you need cash for immediate issues, it’s important to know where to turn. You can cover home repair expenses easily by using a credit card with a high limit, or opting for a home improvement loan with a favorable interest rate.

Pay Attention to Routine Home Maintenance Tasks

You should prepare for emergencies, but also know that you can prevent some of the most common unexpected home repair issues by performing routine home maintenance. For example, trimming trees can keep branches from crashing into your windows, while changing out your HVAC filters can prevent you from needing to replace the entire system. You can take care of most of these tasks on your own, or you can hire pros to help you out. Even if you hire a pro, you’re likely to end up with a much smaller bill than if you have to call those same professionals out for emergency repairs, especially if they happen on weekends or holidays.

Hire Contractors Who Are Reliable and Affordable

If you’ve never hired a contractor before, you can use these tips to make sure you hire someone you can rely on for quality repairs. Ask your trusted friends, family members, and co-workers for referrals, and take some time to interview a few different pros before you make a decision. Taking all these steps can help you avoid issues with contractors. If despite your best efforts, you still end up with problems, try to remain calm, focused, and understanding with your communications. However, don’t be afraid to involve supervisors or other forms of authority to protect your home and your finances.

Use Your Insurance to Cover Home Repair Expenses

Once you’ve found a contractor and figured out a way to cover repair costs, don’t relax quite yet. You may be able to recoup some of the money you spent on those unexpected repairs with a simple homeowner’s insurance claim. Many homeowners forget this step and end up paying much more than they should for covered repairs like roof damage. But also know that your policy may not cover home repairs such as water damage from floods or damage caused by termite damage. So, you will need to use those funds you put into savings or other means to take care of expenses related to non-covered home repairs.

Use Home Equity to Finance Repairs

If you don’t have any money set aside for repairs and your homeowners insurance won’t cover the repairs, you may need to look elsewhere for funds. One option you can explore is to use refinancing options if you have equity in your home. As PennyMac explains, a cash out refinance plan allows you to replace the mortgage you have now with a new, higher balance. The difference between the two is then cashed out, giving you money to spend on your home repair.

No one ever really enjoys dealing with unexpected home repairs. However, being better prepared to pay for them can at least help you avoid unnecessary stress and headaches. Start putting money into your emergency savings, look for simple ways to reduce your costs, and make sure you’re as ready as you can be to take on those rainy day home issues.

Photo Credit: Pexels​