What Should You Do First? Decision Making Rules for First Time Home-Owning That Helped Us

We only had 9 days to move in.

Our apartment lease was expiring on Sept. 3 which left us 9 days to move out and move into the house.

House we bought needed work. It was NOT move-in ready. The previous owners lived in it up until the last day.

To deal with the overwhelm we came up with a solution what to focus on right now and what to postpone for later.

We split things up into 3 categories.

• Emergencies
• Must Haves
• Nice to Haves

Emergencies

Emergency: things that must be done right away. These items cannot wait and they always take top priority.

Emergencies must be taken care of right away and cannot wait until tomorrow. Some of these things include AC, Plumbing, Electric, Roof etc.

Luckily we didn't have any emergencies. But since this is a new house for us, we didn't know if there could be one the next day. For this we had a set amount set aside just in case.

Emergency fund of 10K is a good amount.

Must-Haves

Must-Haves: thigns that are must haves.

Must-haves for us during the move-in were to remove carpets in 2 bedrooms and replace them with woodfloors. They were time sensitive due to we were able to do the work without having all the stuff moved in.

Other must-haves were:

• Painting walls in both of these rooms
• Replacing locks
• Cleaning
• Curtains
• Hooking up cable/internet
• Electricity and water
• Updating personal information with new address

Nice-to-Haves

Nice-to-Have: are last on the list. These things are nice to have. They are rewards and luxury items.

You should indulge yourself with at least one nice to have, even if you have many must-haves. This is something that can help you keep motivation. Don't wait to clean out your must-haves before you can allow for some nice-to-have.

Give yourself a ratio. For every 5 must-haves you do, allow for one nice to have.

Nice to haves for us were couch, new tables, new desks and chairs, renovated kitchen, renovated bathroom, new fridge, new oven with many more on the list

Make a List

Make a list of all the things you know should be done in your new home.

Then go through the list and mark items as MUST and NICE.

Then prioritize each Must-Haves and Nice-to-Have.

Begin to work.

After you've done a set number of must-haves, reward yourself with a nice-to-have.

For emergencies, you don't have to make a list or mark anything off. You will know what an emergency will be because you won't have time to create a list for it. You'll be busy trying to fix it.