7 surprise costs of owning a home that made me glad I’d been saving money – Business Insider

Owning a home is a great experience for many people, myself included, but homes almost always come with expensive surprises over time. Trust me: I've owned three homes so far.

Today, we take a look back at seven times I had to pay for emergency home services, or at least float the cost temporarily before getting reimbursed.

As a homeowner, I have both a sizeable emergency fund and a plan to cover some home costs in my monthly budget. With my emergency fund in a high-yield savings account at a favorite bank, I'm earning top interest rates while hoping I never need to tap into those funds in the future. But a few times, I have needed to pay for a big emergency right away. And thank goodness I had my savings ready when I did.

People tell you about your mortgage and insurance costs. They might mention landscaping and garbage-pickup costs. But how about last-minute wax ring replacement and servicing your hard water softener? Here are seven times repair and maintenance costs completely took me by surprise.

When you own a condo, you are typically responsible for repairs related specifically to your unit while the building's homeowner's association pays for shared costs. A problem with your toilet generally falls squarely into the "your problem" category.

I had old, low-quality toilets in both bathrooms when I moved into my condo. When one of them started leaking on the floor out of the base, I figured it was as good of a time as any to upgrade. I took advantage of a program from Denver Water to buy two new low-flow toilets at a discounted rate. My overall outlay for the project was $418 for two toilets, two wax rings, and other supplies.

While replacing the toilets, I found the root of the problem was a bad wax ring, a part that costs less than $10 at the local hardware store. I did the work myself, so I only had to pay for parts. However, according to Angie's List, a plumber usually charges around $125 to $260 per toilet for this kind of job.

That condo was a great place to live, but it sure had its share of plumbing problems. One day that same toilet started to gurgle when the other was flushed. I quickly realized there was some kind of block in the drain for my unit, as water that went in one drain came out another.

I called up an emergency plumber who charged $100 to show up and diagnose the problem. Ultimately, it was determined to be a building issue and not a repair I had to pay out of pocket. However, I had to float the cost of the diagnosis until the HOA reimbursed me the following month.

My house in California is far from brand new, and its age shows itself from time to time. One place that had been neglected for a while when we moved in was the water softener. After figuring out that it was hardly working at all, we had to hire a company to come out and service the unit.

It cost about $150 to have the water softener fixed. From then on, we also saw our cost of adding the specialized salt to the unit increase, as it wasn't really working before. If you've ever lived with hard water, you know just how important a working water softener is for your shower, dishwasher, and laundry to all work as expected.

In the peak of summer last year, our air conditioner started to run all day without making the house cooler. It only took a couple of days for us to make a call to a local HVAC repair company for a diagnosis.

Including parts, the worn part cost about $400 to replace. That's my biggest surprise home expense ever. Thankfully, the repair worker said the rest of our A/C is in good shape and shouldn't need work for years to come. I hope he's right!

The inspection report when we bought this home noted a few issues with the chimney. It turns out, however, that the issues he found were not the whole story. To ensure birds and raccoons didn't make their way down our chimney and into the house, we needed to make a few upgrades.

The all-in cost was around $200 for a new chimney crown and resealing the concrete block at the top of the chimney. After a brief scare about having to completely replace that concrete block, we were happy to hear they were able to keep what was there. The cost could have easily been quite a bit higher.

It wasn't long after moving into our house that the hose in the front yard started running. We hoped that the repair would be covered by our homeowner warranty we picked up when buying the house, but apparently our policy, like many, didn't cover many common situations including a leaking hose spigot attached to the house.

We ended up paying about $100 for the repair, which took the plumber less than 10 minutes. The exact same thing happened on the same spigot about a year later. That time, I watched the plumber make the repair so I would know how to do it myself in the future.

I'm very glad I did, as it only cost me about $9 for a replacement part when it broke for the third time instead of another $100 plumber bill.

Another issue that reared its ugly head shortly after moving into our current home was not so pleasant to deal with. We had rats in the attic and I happily paid an exterminator to get rid of those pests so I didn't have to.

The exterminator trapped and removed the rats, sealed up holes so they couldn't get in again, and suggested some landscaping changes to avoid future problems. We paid bills for both pest control and tree trimming that totaled a few hundred dollars. The house has been rat-free ever since.

If you rent your home, your landlord should cover regular maintenance and repairs. In fact, every single item on this list should be covered by a landlord, not you, when you rent. Homeowners, on the other hand, have to pay their own way when it comes to maintenance and repairs.

Homes are expensive. Home maintenance and repairs are expensive. That's why it's a good idea for homeowners to keep an emergency fund ready and budget for home repairs. I was able to pay for most of these expenses without touching the emergency fund, but more than once I was glad to have savings on standby.

If you own a home, always be ready for unexpected repairs. From your furnace to your dishwasher to your plumbing, things inevitably go wrong on occasion. While rats and repairs are always a hassle, with savings and a home maintenance budget on standby, you can get through those repairs without the financial stress of figuring out how to pay.

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7 surprise costs of owning a home that made me glad I'd been saving money - Business Insider