When you rent, your landlord quietly pays for things like building insurance, major repairs, property taxes and often some utilities. When you buy, all of that shifts onto your shoulders. If you shop only by focusing on the mortgage payment alone, you risk saying yes to a home that works on paper but feels suffocating in real life. The goal is simple, before you buy, zoom out from just the mortgage and look at the full cost of owning and running the home for a year, including the less obvious expenses of a house that do not show up in a basic payment calculator.
Breaking Down the Key Costs to Plan for Your First Year
Mortgage, Property Tax and Insurance
Start with your all-in mortgage payment. That covers the principal, the interest, and, if your down payment is under 20 percent, mortgage default insurance that is usually added to the loan. Next, add your annual property taxes, based on the home’s assessed value, and your home insurance, which lenders almost always require. If you are buying a condo or townhome, factor in condo or strata fees as well, because they pay for building insurance, shared services and future repairs. These core payments are the expenses of owning a house that you will face every single year, and they form the base of your budget.
Around closing, you also need to account for several one-time costs. These include the inspection, appraisal, legal fees, land transfer tax, title insurance, a possible survey, tax or utility adjustments with the seller, and the cost of moving. They do not repeat every month, but they do hit your bank account in year one. In Canada, these closing costs often add up to roughly 1.5 to 4 percent of the purchase price. Treat them as part of your overall first-year budget, not as an afterthought you figure out at the last minute, especially once you add them to all your other house expenses.
Monthly Running Costs: Utilities and Services
Next is what it costs to actually live in the home each month. That usually includes electricity, gas or heating oil, water, sewer, and any garbage or recycling charges in your city. On top of that, most households will have internet and maybe basic TV or home phone, plus any services you outsource like lawn mowing, snow removal or regular pest control. These are the bills that show up again and again, and together they make up a large part of what it really costs to keep the lights on and the home comfortable.
If you are coming from a small or well-insulated apartment where heat or water was included, expect these amounts to be higher in a larger home. Ask the seller or your agent for recent utility bills and base your budget on one of the expensive months, such as the coldest winter or hottest summer bill. That way, seasonal spikes feel normal instead of like a nasty surprise, and you can fit these house expenses into your monthly cash flow without constant stress.
Maintenance, Repairs and Big Ticket Fixes
As a homeowner, you pay for everything that breaks or wears out. That means small fixes like leaky taps, running toilets, sticky doors and tired caulking. It also means bigger jobs, such as servicing or eventually replacing your furnace, AC, hot water tank and major appliances like the fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer. Outside, you need to plan for roof work, gutter cleaning, driveway cracks, siding touch-ups and occasional pest control to keep unwanted guests out. These jobs might not happen often, but when they do, they can be some of the most significant expenses of a house you will face.
A useful rule of thumb is to expect to spend around 1 to 3 percent of your home value per year on maintenance and repairs, depending on age and condition. Your home inspection is your best roadmap, so note anything the inspector says should be dealt with in the next one to three years, such as an older roof or water heater, and assume those items will need real money sooner rather than later. Thinking this way also helps you compare long-term patterns like condo fees vs house expenses, since both are ultimately about paying for upkeep, just in different ways.
Setting Up Your Home From Scratch
If you are moving from an apartment and almost nothing fits or works in the new place, assume you are starting from zero. In the first year, you will likely need proper beds and frames, a sofa and chairs that suit the new living room, a dining table and chairs, some storage such as dressers, shelves and closet systems, window coverings for privacy and sleep, plus basic rugs and lamps so rooms do not feel bare. You will also need infrastructure that many renters do not own yet, including a simple tool kit, cordless drill, step stool, ladder and basic safety gear like fire extinguishers and smoke or carbon monoxide detectors where needed.
Then there is the seasonal gear. Spring and summer may demand a lawn mower or lawn service, a trimmer, hose, rake and basic gardening tools. Fall can add leaf rakes or blowers and gutter tools. Winter often means snow shovels, ice melt, ice choppers, heavy door mats, boot trays and possibly a snow blower or paid plow service if you have a bigger driveway. If you go in expecting that nothing from the apartment will be enough, you can plan these costs in stages instead of panic buying everything on a credit card after you move in.
Cash Buffer for Emergencies and First Year Mistakes
Finally, you will want a cash buffer that covers two things: genuine emergencies and normal first-year mistakes. Emergencies are the big ones; losing part of your income, a furnace that dies in January, a serious leak, situations where not paying is not really an option. For those, it helps to have some money parked in a plain savings account that you only touch when something truly important breaks, and when putting the cost on a credit card would be hard to manage.
Then there are the learning costs of being new at this, such as buying the wrong part and needing to replace it, calling in a professional to fix a do-it-yourself attempt, overpaying your first contractor or damaging something while figuring out maintenance. A simple, practical move is to open a small, separate savings account and send a set amount there every month. When one of those inevitable expenses pops up, you pay from that account on purpose instead of reaching for high-interest debt.
If you build your budget around these areas before you buy, and think frankly about all the owning a house expenses that will come with your purchase, your first year of homeownership is far more likely to feel manageable and not like a financial trap.
Ready to own instead of just browsing? Talk to a local REMAX agent to compare condo fees vs house expenses and see what you can actually afford. Message us today and get moving.
