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6 Things Every New Homeowner Should Do

Congratulations on the purchase of your new home! Moving into a new home is exciting, especially if it’s your first! Here are some things you may want to do before moving in.

Thank you again for purchasing your new home with PREMIER!

1. Change the locks

You don’t know who has keys to your home! Make sure you’re the only one with access by changing the locks. It’s simple to install new deadbolts yourself, or you can call a locksmith.

2. Check for plumbing leaks

While your inspector will have checked for leaks during the inspection, something may have been missed, or something may have happened between the inspection and now. Check your water meter at the beginning and end of a two hour window in which no water is being used in the house. If the reading is different, you have a leak!

3. Steam clean carpets

While the seller of your home will likely have vacuumed after they moved out, they probably haven’t steam cleaned the carpets in awhile. You can pay a professional carpet cleaning service (give us a call if you’d like a recommendation!), or you can rent a steam cleaner for about $30/day and do the work yourself.

4. Wipe out your cabinets

Again, this is something that the seller of your home just may not have thought to do. Wipe inside and out with a cleaning product, and replace contact paper if necessary. While you’re doing this, keep an eye out for signs of pests!

5. Evict the pests!

With any luck, you won’t find any mouse poop or bugs when you’re wiping down the cabinets. If so, great!

If you found evidence of any critters, however, it’s time to show them the door. Mice, rats, bats, ants, roaches… anything might have moved in, especially if your new home has been vacant for a bit. If there are just a few, there are plenty of DIY ways to get rid of pests. If you have to bring out the big guns, give us a call and we’ll introduce you to a professional pest removal service.

6. Get to know your circuit breaker box and main water valve. 

It’s always a good idea to figure out which fuses control which parts of your home, and label them accordingly. To make it easier, enlist the help of another person – one person to trip the fuses, and the other to be in the place that the fuse is supposed to control and tell you if it worked or not.

Similarly, you should familiarize yourself with how to turn off your main water valve, in case of a plumbing emergency, in the event of a hurricane or tornado, or just if you’re going out of town for awhile. The valve could be inside or outside your house, and all you have to do is turn the knob until it’s off. Test to see that it worked by turning on any faucet in the house – if no water comes out, it worked.