Maintenance Service FAQ

Repair work performed outside of the maintenance program is billed on a time and expense basis. For this work we present you with a proposal that estimates the time and expense cost of each repair/enhancement. You then authorize which items you would like us to complete. Bundling or group scheduling of repair/enhancement projects has proven to result in significant savings.

The best time to start a home maintenance program is when your home is new. Maintenance on a new home is no different than maintenance on a home 25 years old. However, regular maintenance can keep your new house new longer. Home maintenance is not provided by the builder and lack of regular maintenance can result in warranties being voided.

To our knowledge, there are no other companies in the area offering a similar home maintenance program! There are lots of handyman services, but their service is based on reacting to problems after the fact – not prevention. Prevention through proactive maintenance saves money.

No. The House & Home Audit is critical to our ability to provide preventative maintenance and make efficient use of time during our maintenance visits.

This is a simple question that unfortunately has a complicated answer. We can spend an hour or two discussing the pros and cons and analyzing the studies that have been done, but the short answer is as follows:

There is a significant return on investment for maintaining major home systems and components, and when return on investment is combined with some of the less quantifiable benefits (i.e. safety, peace of mind, convenience, etc.), this program is an incredible value.

You are not required to use our repair/enhancement services, nor are you required to use our list of service professionals. However, there are some advantages to our services that you may want to consider.

First, based on our analysis, our hourly rates are 10% – 20% less than some other alternatives to repair/enhancement. We also believe our familiarity with your home and its systems, as well as our ability to bundle/group schedule will make us that much more efficient with our time – further lowering the cost of repairs/enhancements.

Second, use of our services and service providers assures that Your House & Home Book is automatically updated.

However, we do recognize that you may have a friend or family member that is an electrician or you just love the heating guy you’ve used for years. We recommend that you maintain the relationships you’ve established. We do request that a description of the work performed be faxed or e-mailed to us so we know of the changes to your home and we can maintain Your House & Home Book.

Also understand that all we will do is recommend. You are not required to implement any of the recommendations we make. We think the best thing to do is fix the more serious issues sooner than later, and then set a plan to start eliminating the lesser deferred maintenance repair items over time.

No. The program is not an insurance policy. Even with regular maintenance/inspection, home systems and components will fail sometime. The service should be viewed as an intuitive risk management program – i.e. is a home system or component more likely to fail or fail sooner with or without regular maintenance/inspection?

Based on our analysis, our hourly rates are 10% – 20% less than some other alternatives to repair/enhancement. We also believe our familiarity with your home and its systems, as well as our ability to bundle/group schedule will make us that much more efficient with our time – further lowering the cost of repairs/enhancements.

No! In fact, we have negotiated “preferred rates” or “contractor rates” with many of our providers and they are instructed to pass that savings directly to you, the subscriber.

The service is designed for:

• Busy individuals & professionals who don’t have the time (40 -50 hrs per year), the interest, the skills and/or the tools necessary to perform routine home maintenance.
• Individuals with vacation homes or snowbirds. If you own a property in the mountains, it’s comforting to know that the systems are being regularly maintained and inspected. You don’t want to spend your limited time there performing routine maintenance. Also some homeowners winter in warmer locations. The home here in Colorado still requires regular maintenance. We can tailor a maintenance program specifically for either of these scenarios.
• Seniors who would like to stay in their home but may not be able to get on the roof, crawl in the crawlspace, carry 5 gallon buckets of water, or would simply rather be enjoying other things in life.
• Children of aging parents can also subscribe to the program for their parents. The program provides assurance that the property is being maintained and that the home’s health and safety systems are operating and operating efficiently.
• Builders and realtors can offer the program as an incentive or house warming gift. Builders not only appreciate our ability to differentiate maintenance work from repair work from actual warranty work, but we can also tailor a program to manage their true warranty work for them.