Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Home Maintenance Plan?
With a Home Maintenance Plan, Shane's Home Maintenance & Handyman Service manages your home to eliminate the worry and allow you time to do other things. Depending on your plan type, we conduct quarterly or monthly maintenance visits during which a technician performs a variety of health, safety and preventative maintenance tasks on your home. When a problem does arise, Shane's HMHS is your handyman to correct the issue. When needed/desired, we also have a network of qualified service partners to provide other services needed to maintain and enhance your home such as HVAC service, window/gutter cleaning, etc.
Who uses a Home Maintenance plan?
- Busy individuals / professionals who do not have the time, interest, skills and/or tools to maintain their home. Home maintenance can easily take 40 hours per year or more. Many people do not have the time to invest or would rather be doing more enjoyable things.
- Seniors who would like to stay living in their own home but are unable to deal with the maintenance and/or would rather someone else deal with it.
- Single Parents and Surviving Spouses are also common users of a maintenance plan as they often fall into the categories and reasons listed above.
- Children of Aging Parents will often purchase a maintenance plan for their parents. Care-giving children often don't have the time necessary to perform these duties. Others live too far away to provide help. These plans are a way to ensure your parent’s home is properly maintained while providing a healthy and safe environment.
- Individuals with Multiple Homes often purchase maintenance plans to insure that their multiple properties are being regularly inspected and maintained whether or not they are living there at that time.
- Builders & Realtors use maintenance plans as a sales incentive and/or house warming gift to help differentiate their properties and promote sales.
- Rental/Lease Property Owners will use these plans to help ensure the safety and upkeep of their properties.
What is the advantage of a Home Maintenance plan over repairing items as needed?
Regular, routine maintenance ensures safety and prevents neglected upkeep from turning into costly repairs. Benjamin Franklin once said "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Studies have shown that preventive maintenance is many times more cost effective than reactive maintenance after something has failed. It is often the little things that people don't think about. For example, there could be some cracked caulk around a window. It may not seem like a big deal, but behind that caulk, water could get into the sheathing causing rot and mold. The result could be a $5000 repair that could have been prevented by a $5 tube of caulk and a little time. Proactive maintenance is essential to preserving the value of your home. Without it, you home can lose 10% of its value. Combine this maintenance with the extra benefits gained such as safety, convenience, utility cost savings, piece of mind and even resale value, a home maintenance plan is an incredible value!
How are repairs billed that are not covered under my selected maintenance program?
Any repair work performed outside of the maintenance program is billed on a time and materials basis. Prior to the work, we will provide you with an estimate of time and the materials needed. You can then authorize us to perform the work that you would like completed. Having multiple items taken care of at the same time can often result in significant savings.
If you find a need for a major repair, does Shane's Home Maintenance perform the repair work?
Your technician can perform small repairs as they make their scheduled visits. For larger needs, the technician may have to schedule an additional visit to take care of the work (with a maintenance plan, you never pay a trip charge). On items that Shane's Home Maintenance cannot provide such as electrical, plumbing, A/C & heating services, etc we have a list of preferred providers that we can recommend. We can even schedule and oversee the work for you. At Shane’s Home Maintenance, our goal is to provide as many services as we can to take those worries away from you.
Why do I need a Home Maintenance Plan if I own a new home?
New homes and old homes need regular maintenance regardless of age. The warranty provided by your builder does not provide this type of maintenance. Lack of regular maintenance can even cause your warranties to be voided. Starting a home maintenance program from the beginning will keep your new home feeling and looking new for much longer.
Are any of the systems that you maintain through the service guaranteed?
No. A home maintenance program is not an insurance policy. Regardless of regular maintenance and inspection, homes systems, appliances and components will sometimes fail. A home maintenance program is designed to maintain your major systems and appliances and keep them operating at peak efficiency and to prolong their lives.
How much does the service cost?
Pricing for quarterly service starts as low as $100/month and monthly service starts as low as $175/month. Plan prices can vary depending on the size and complexity of the home. The Home Maintenance Plan is customized for each home and exact pricing will be provided at the time of the free in-home evaluation.
Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC recommends an annual home maintenance budget of between 1.5% and 4% of the homes value. For a $500k home, $7,500-$20,000 would need to be set aside for maintenance.
The American Society of Home Inspectors advises homeowners to budget .75% of a home's value for annual maintenance for homes less than 10 years old. That jumps to 1.5% for homes in their second decade and 3.0% for homes in the third decade. For the same $500k home, that is $3,750 a year set aside for maintenance if it is new, $7,500 if it is greater than 10 years old, and $15,000 if it is over 20 years old.
With a Home Maintenance Plan, our goal is to help you keep these significant maintenance costs under control and under budget.
Does someone need to be home during the service call?
It is not necessary or required for anyone to be at home during a scheduled service call. We will contact you 48 hrs prior to our scheduled appointment to confirm that we are coming on schedule. It is very common for our customers to provide us a key or garage code so that we can get in when they are not home. This allows us to deal with the normal maintenance visits along with any random issues you call with without disrupting your busy schedule.