This time of year when I was at Emory, my grandmother would call and ask if I was able to come to her house and help with her spring cleaning. It was a well-rehearsed ritual, involving adding manure to her flower garden, planting annuals and whatnot, and perhaps most importantly, cleaning all the windows in her house, inside and out.
I’ve never known anyone else who annually cleaned every window in the house, inside and out, but that’s the way she was. It made perfect sense at the time. This is the same woman who saved wrapping paper from Christmas for reuse next year. Today, we call that recycling.
In any case, this is a good time to think about some of the chores we should perform if we expect to be good stewards of our real estate. Here is a list of some chores you may have overlooked:
1. Watch for your notice of assessment
Under Georgia law, your Tax Assessor is required to send you a notice of assessment, in which the county tells you how much it thinks your house was worth on Jan. 1 this year. That notice usually arrive in May or June. It’s your responsibility to disagree (to lower your tax bill) or ignore it (which means their guess will be used to set your tax bill.) My advice is to politely disagree — more about that another time.
2. Shoot a video of your house inside and out
It’s a very good idea for you to have available a relatively recent video of the condition and contents of your house, including exterior and all interior rooms and basement and attic. Open all containers, closets, and drawers and record the contents. That way, in the unlikely event you have a meteorite (or anything else) destroy your home, you can easily prove what you lost. Then put it on YouTube and don’t store the video in your house. If the video is destroyed as well, it’s worthless.
3. Perform a Safety Review
It’s smart to ask a friend or relative to join you for a walk around your house and your yard. You should be looking for anything that might be considered dangerous to anyone for almost any reason. Look for uneven surfaces, loose rugs, poorly supported decks, steps without adequate handrails or adequate lighting, and on and on.
For example, do you have roots growing under the walkway leading to your front door (I do) and is it possible that someone, especially an older person who has trouble walking, might trip and fall as a result of your root? If so, that might be considered negligence on your part, and you are potentially responsible for any pain or suffering that results from a hazard you know about (or should have known about).
Any of these conditions might be the basis of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, and your insurance liability coverage actually has relatively low limits. Which brings us to the next chore:
4. Perform an Insurance Review
We recently sat down with our insurance agent for an annual review, our first in almost twenty years, and were amazed at the smart questions my agent asked me. She told me about half a dozen things I could do to lower my premium (some of which I had already done, but never told her about). She also had some really good recommendations on why I should raise my deductible on the car, and why I should add more smoke detectors. Hey, it’s only an hour.
5. Perform a Mortgage Review
Rates are really low right now, and if you have ANY debt that is not locked in at a really low rate, this is probably a good time to see about refinancing your mortgage and locking in a 30-year loan at under 5 percent interest (and making it tax-deductible at the same time). If you don’t believe me, ask your accountant.
6. Perform a Termite Review
Georgia is the “Mecca” of the termite world. Every termite born on this planet has to travel to Georgia at least once in its lifetime, eat a house, then return to its homeland.
Seriously, we have a remarkable termite problem in this part of the country, and it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in a short time. To make matters worse, we also are an attractive environment to powder-post beetles, who can (and will) reduce the wooden elements of your beautiful home to dust over a multiple-decade span.
Call a reputable pest-control operator and ask for an inspection for wood-destroying organisms. Don’t be worried today about “previous damage.” Instead, ask the inspector to prove that you have an “active infestation” before you pay for any treatment.
Well, I’ve worn myself out with these responsible recommendations, and now I still have over 27 full-size windows, each with at least 12 panes, that need to be cleaned, inside and out. Where’s my Grandma when I need her?
