Expense planning for Schedule J is quite an interesting exercise after a few years of lean living! At the moment I am focusing on the home maintenance line. My home is 35 years old and does have some deferred maintenance that is not cosmetic. The garage door wheel track is bent and it’s a challenge to open safely, hence the new car does not go in the garage. Maybe not a life/death necessity, but harder on the car over time which affects its value, and if I did attempt to sell the home a few years down the road a working garage door would be a required fix. I’m thinking this would be around $300 to fix. The fencing needs some attention – a gate won’t shut properly without some serious muscle and there are several bowed planks, and weak areas where I suspect the ground posts are rotted – cost I have no idea. There is an area at the corner of the roof overhang outside that has increasing dry rot due to a breach in the roofing seal (affecting only the overhang area for now) – cost I have no idea. There is a broken PVC pipe for the sprinkler system out front for the drip system, likely a $40 cost to fix. For home maintenance such as this, do I get estimates, add ‘em together and divide by twelve to support the monthly estimate? Or are any of these unreasonable? I did stop having a pool service because I can figure that out (was $88 a month), but I can’t physically open and clean the pool filter twice a year since it takes more than flyweight me to wrestle it apart. That would be $40 twice a year. (Woohoo! Just remembered to factor in the pool chemicals!) Then once a year Heat/Air maintenance at $79. I wouldn’t list a professional carpet cleaner, but I would like to rent a steamer and clean the carpet. Actually, the warranty on the carpet requires professional cleaning every other year, but I had to let go of that. I still do like to keep it clean by steaming it every couple of years and it is overdue – so determine the steamer rental and divide by 24 since I do it every two years? Are things like that ok? What I am trying to think of are things that I’ve let go but maintain property value, so I’d hope these would be. I am in the process of cleaning (and replacing some) floor grout myself, I climb up and clean out my own gutters, etc., so I’m not trying to be Princess Home Owner by a long shot. I am also wondering if there is anything I might be forgetting? Thanks for any illumination!
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I've not seen any allowance over $100 for home maintenance; ours is actually set at $50.
As far as chemicals for your pool, etc - thats something that you'll have to take out of some other category, or pad your budget somewhere. We have a pool as well and we were not allowed extra $ for it because its not a "necessity" to the trustee, resulting in us padding the budget elsewhere.
What does the IRS standard allow for your area? -
They would seem reasonable to me. But I wouldn't amortize the steamer rental over 24 months-it is an expense you will incur this year and will not incur next year.Comment
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