Repair and Maintenance budget

[Anthony Freeman]

What percentage of monthly income do you budget for repairs? (Small multi unit family)

[Richard F.]

Aloha,

This is totally dependent on current age and condition of the specific property, and how accurate you want your budget to be. A newer property in very good condition will require less per month NOW, than an older property that has been milked dry by a prior owner. It will need much more in 10 or 20 years. It is important to understand that every element of the property has an "expected" life, and this varies by the type of element. Your job is to estimate how much life is left in each element, thereby predicting when it will need to be replaced or have major maintenance. Develop your budget from that information.

Of course, the easy way is to pick a % number and hope it is close to accurate; or that you have buckets of money when something "unexpected" needs immediate replacement. The fact is, 'normal" failure can be reasonably predicted. There are lots of residential construction "useful life" statistical charts found on the internet.