Advantages of a home maintenance plan over hiring when things go wrong
Disaster can strike at the most inopportune moments. The hot water goes out the same weekend your in-laws are coming to visit. A leak forms in the roof, dripping water onto the new suede couch in the living room. We’ve all been there.
While there are things you can’t avoid as a homeowner, there are plenty you can with a home maintenance plan. Home maintenance is a bit like car maintenance — letting a professional make sure everything is in working order and take care of issues before they get near-catastrophic.
Home maintenance plans are often a necessity for vacation or rental homes, where owners need assurance that their home is accommodating and in good condition. But maintenance plans offer something for everyone. The most obvious benefit is that they reduce the risk of high-impact, high-cost windfalls.
What do home maintenance plans entail? At Bluestone Construction, our plans include:
- Details about frequency and timing of inspections and servicing
- A comprehensive checklist that our team goes through at each home visit
- Each area that we cover, which includes exterior/roof/siding, HVAC, plumbing, appliances, electrical, cabinetry, painting, and much more
As a premier home builder, we bring a high level of detail and deep knowledge of best practices for preventative home care. It’s nearly impossible for even the handiest homeowner to match our capabilities and resources. We come prepared with replacement parts, specialized tools and equipment to perform a comprehensive inspection and needed updates quickly and effectively.
Whenever possible — enlist your homebuilder to perform regular maintenance on the home. We know it can be rare for builders to offer maintenance plans, and it’s one reason we’re proud to offer them to homeowners who build with Bluestone.
Think about it. Who else would know your home better than the team that built it? When you bring your car to the same repair shop year after year, the mechanics there get to know your vehicle inside and out and are therefore better at diagnosing issues and executing needed repairs.
Where the water lines are, quirks about door or window fittings — homebuilders like Bluestone will remember these things, even 5+ years out from the build.
As Bluestone owner Kevin Reed explains, “We’re not building 100 homes a year, so it’s not uncommon for us to remember the smallest details about a house. Your average plumber has gone through a thousand houses, so he won’t remember specific things. Our painter, for example, will remember paints used in homes from 10 years ago. He remembers doing a stucco finish in my basement.”
The other option? Waiting for things to go wrong and hoping that they don’t occur at the most inconvenient times (e.g. when you have guests in town). This invariably increases your level of risk.
An additional downside to this approach is that the quality of the work will vary and it’s up to you to vet and procure the contractor. This can take time and is also risky. Who do you trust? What sources are reliable? What course of action will you be able to take if the repairs fail or are incomplete?
Calling in contractors to perform specific, urgent repairs also forces you to sacrifice continuity of care. It’s akin to taking your car to a different shop every time you need repairs done. You effectively start over with each visit, newly explaining old accidents, idiosyncrasies, preferences, etc.
Kevin Reed shares, “The biggest advantage of having Bluestone do a maintenance agreement is that we built the house. Because of this, we have a sense of ownership of the house and how it performs. This is gratifying for us, and a win for homeowners too — it just makes sense.”
And there’s something (big) to be said about working with people you know and trust. An HVAC worker isn’t just an HVAC worker; an electrician not just an electrician. Characteristics such as how they communicate, how they behave on the job site (i.e. your home), their timeliness, their attention to detail, and how they manage follow-up requests matter. Often times, these seemingly peripheral qualities carry as much, if not more, weight than the contractor’s job-specific skill sets.
When you build with Bluestone, opt for an ongoing home maintenance plan with us. Here’s a quick summary of why:
• Risks are reduced
• Costs are controlled
• Continuity of care improves quality and thoroughness of work
• Eliminates need to vet, hire and negotiate with new contractors
• Work with people you know and trust
• Leverage the sense of ownership Bluestone has for your home
Bluestone is one of very few builders in the area who offer home maintenance plans to homeowners. Explore other benefits we offer, including our building process that prioritizes your needs and keeping you in the loop, and our 3-year standard warranty on every home we build.
