Automated Home Maintenance Reminders: Who To Use?

[Ryan]

All,

Hello from a new member! In the process of becoming a first-time homeowner. I'm caught in the middle of not being handy & not wanting to actively destroying my largest investment bc of ignorance/lack of understanding.

I have been looking at a couple of apps that build out an annual maintenance schedule for you and then send out automated monthly reminders to help homeowners stay on top of the info. This seems like it would be perfect for me & I want to know if the community has used any of these before to give recommendations?

The two I've looked at are:

Homebuddy.house : Free (I like the sounds of that) customizable and send out the mo. reminders mentioned

Homebinder : $2.99/mo for homeowners, has the monthly reminders aspect, along with a place to keep your documents, everything else they offer seems like it can be done off-site.

Again, does anyone have familiarity with these apps, or others? Is it worth to pay for?

 

[Sparky617]

Haven't used one. Being thrifty, I'd try the free one first.

 

[Ryan]

Sparky, appreciate your feedback. That's where I'm leaning as well.Hopefully can get some more input.

 

[Flyover]

The best way to automate is to form good habits.

That said, things you do infrequently are harder to remember. I'll bet your phone or home computer or maybe even your email provider have calendar functions into which you can program events with reminders that are emailed to you or "pop up" in some other way that is difficult to miss or ignore. Meanwhile, lists of what kinds of maintenance you need to do for a house and how often are easy to find online; I'd say refer to those and program some reminders for yourself.

That makes it one less app you need to download, and one less company that might be collecting and selling data about you.

 

[Ryan]

Flyover, thanks for the message. The idea is to use automation to help me form good habits.

My only issue with building out my own list of reminders for my home is that I don't know what I don't know. So when I read all of these articles online about what to do & how often to do it, I don't know which to add because they all have vastly different suggestions & time frames to do the tasks in.

That's why I've decided on using one of the apps that can nudge me in the right direction.

 

[Gary]

I've been a home owner for 30+ years and have never been that concerned with a reminder list. We have a large home with outbuildings, but the maintenance schedule is pretty much ''fix what breaks, when it breaks''. We have hot water heat so no filters, no blower fan to grease. AC is a self reminder when it gets hot out. Boiler maintenance is a self reminder when it gets cold out. Gutter cleaning is not an issue since we lost all our trees in the tornado 3-4 years ago. In the end, it all seems to get done. Probably a result of doing it for so many years, it just is second nature.

 

[Ryan]

Gary, thanks for the input, this is extremely helpful!

 

[slownsteady]

What's been said above. Doesn't seem like a lot of stuff that needs reminding. The apps probably overplay it in order to look valuable. Naturally, you are going to keep an eye on things....you're already aware and thinking about it. Find yourself a local handyman that you can build a relationship with, and when you have doubts, give him a call and discuss it.

 

[pjones]

The easiest thing I find I loose track of is the furnace filter. I have a tstat with a filter reminder function that can be set based on a user selectable run hours function. It’s useless if the hours can’t be adjusted for your houses requirements though so if you go that route make sure you can control that.

Everything else seems pretty autopilot, if it needs attention you will probably see it and deal with it at that point.

 

[Ryan]

PJ, thanks for your input. Helpful info about the furnace filter, that I will make note of.


I think I am speaking to a group of ppl who are a lot more versed in what it takes to manage a home. My concern is that I won't know when something breaks bc unless its blatantly obvious I don't know what I'm looking for.

So I'm going to use a reminder (most likely the free one, homebuddy.house) to help me get versed in some of the things around my home, so I too can be on autopilot!

Again, appreciate everyone's feedback. I look forward to being able to provide some feedback of my own in the near future!

 

[pjones]

The free one is s good choice to start with.

It really comes down to the fact that our maintenance is different than yours.

I don’t have a water filtration system, septic system, mossy roof, I get low snow load at winter time, our rain is minimal so flooding is not an issue, my hose bibs are frost free so I don’t need to turn the water off to them in the winter... etc.

Your maintenance schedule will be different than mine or the next guys. Although an app will help you with that, if you don’t tell it what you have correctly then it may not notify you of something important, I’ve never used one so I’m making an assumption on its functionality.

I think the best thing to do would be to learn about all the equipment in your house and list out the tasks that you have and make repeating reminders on your phone or calendar so only the reminders that apply to you are presented when you need it. It seems overwhelming at first but I promise it gets easier after the first year or two.

If you have a filtration system determine if or when you need to backflush it, have the filter media, etc...

Your equipment will determine the tasks at hand that you will need to do, and your use and climate will determine the frequency of those tasks.

Furnace filter may be once a year for one person while it’s once every month for another.

 

[Ryan]

PJ,

Great post w/ great insights! I'll make sure to keep note of these suggestions.

Thank you!