Carrying Costs on Huge House

A little background, a friend recently inherited a large sum of money and is interested in buying a huge house in PA (almost 4,000 square feet). Most likely, she would have no mortgage but she would have property taxes (about 15k) plus other utilities Anyone have a really large home? Would you mind sharing what the carrying costs are? She really wants to make the right move for her family. Thanks!

Message edited 2/14/2017 8:37:25 PM.

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

She could have private sewer, $72.
Private trash, $24
Gas $500
Electric $250
Water $42 and then $300 in the summer. Water is expensive off of LI.
I would ask the current home owner or city data for the town.

Carrying Costs on Huge House

Im sure it all depends on where you live but for a family of four our bills are below:

Electric-$500 in the winter, $800 in the summer bc of the pool
Oil- $450-$500 a month during the winter, that's with COD
Water/Sewer- $250 per quarter

Plus any additional you need to pay for private road maintenance, private trash etc. Since moving into a larger home, i feel like money is being thrown out the window like crazy! Maintenance is expensive for every single thing:(

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

She could ask for the current owners bills. The owners can retrieve the last year of bills online from their gas/electric company. We did that for the last house we put an offer on

Message edited 2/15/2017 6:50:53 AM.

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

Carrying Costs on Huge House

I would also point out that you don't want to be cash poor with such a big house. Taxes and utilities are always going to go up. She shouldn't put all her eggs in one basket jsut to get the biggest or best house. If she can't afford it long term then it's not the right move.

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

I'm in PA, my house is a little over 3000 sq ft.

Water- $61 monthly, $150 in the summer
Trash- $51 quarterly
Sewer- $90 quarterly

Electric- $400 balanced billing
Lawn maintenance- April is usually $1500, and then $45 a week maintence, $300 in October/November

We don't have a mortgage, so we pay property taxes in April (which is the lower bill) and then we pay school taxes in September.

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

Our house is about that size. Utilities really depend on where you live. We spend between on everage 200-300 per month on water, sewer, electricity, and irrigation/reclaimed water. Some months it has been $150, (january maybe) and some $350. For us, irrigation water (reclaimed water that is used strictly for watering lawns) is the killer bc we have a bigger backyard and during the really hot months we have to water it almost every day. Our irrigation water is more than our regular water.

I'd be more concerned about property takes. Those keep going up. Utilities you could take steps to decrease your expenses - keeping house cooler and warmer depending on month, turning off lights, changing bulbs, etc. 15K is already more than 1k a month.

Plus, how old is the house? Maintenance might be an issue. Our house is new but over time if we stay here we'll begin to incur costs for repairs. Painting a house this large is costly, if we ever need to change windows it's 33 windows, etc.

ETA: Checked our bills and it's actually closer to $250/300 per month on average and closer to 500 when we use more electricity during the hottest/coldest months.

Message edited 2/21/2017 4:35:24 PM.

Re: Carrying Costs on Huge House

Our home in orange county was similar to this......we had well water.

Winter
gas/electric 500
snow removal 75-150
Trash-30


Summer
gas/electric approx 400
lawn 150
trash- 30


I think thats all! We did not have a pool.