Thursday, January 12, 2012

Cost : Purchase Price

Our recent plumbing bill brought an important point to light. At first I felt the $332 bill was too high. We were charged a 3 hr labour rate when it didn't take 3 hrs.

Additional time was charged for travel. I was a bit miffed about it. We used someone from out of town because they were good. Next time we'll find someone good locally.

But what I wanted to get to was this. Even though the bill was $100 higher than I was expecting, the cost of our house maintenance as a percentage of the cost of our house is actually pretty small.

When we started to think in those terms, it was easy to evaluate our other properties in the same way we would consider car reliability. So our main house is like the Honda of homes. Very reliable, minimal maintenance costs.

The cottage and ski condo has been higher maintenance relative to its cost so more like German cars -- fun but there is a much higher cost to maintain. With respect to the ski condo, we haven't had to fix anything per se but I'm using the yearly condo fees as the measure.

Over the 9 plus years of cottage ownership, we've replaced the well, the pump, the stove (fridge is next) and the roof. Some people may add the cost of gasoline to get there and back. And in our case, we have the monthly cost of the Turbo Hub.

I'd like to think that most of the big capital costs for that location are done and should last a long while. Other things like newer windows and bathroom are a want and not a must have, just like landscaping.

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