Notes on owning a home, kept by people who own one.
introducing holm
What we're building, and why: a home that keeps its own record, and an owner who finally gets to relax.
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- July 14, 2026
How to manage a home in another country without losing your mind
Owning a home in another country means time zones, currencies, and distance. How records, trusted local contacts, and clean paper trails keep it manageable.
By Holm Team
- July 13, 2026
Your house deserves an annual checkup too
An annual home checkup catches small drift before it becomes damage. What to walk, photograph, and log once a year, and why the same week always works best.
By Holm Team
- July 10, 2026
What sellers must disclose, and what buyers should ask for
What sellers must disclose varies by state, and the form never tells the whole story. The documents buyers should ask for and why a papered house wins.
By Holm Team
- July 9, 2026
How long do appliances last? Fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher
Most major appliances last roughly 10 to 15 years. What pushes your fridge, washer, dryer, and dishwasher toward either end, and the habits that add years.
By Holm Team
- July 7, 2026
Summer home maintenance checklist for the hottest months
A summer home maintenance checklist for the hottest months: cooling, water, storms, and pests, with the reason behind each task and a way to keep track.
By Holm Team
- July 5, 2026
The hidden costs of buying an older home
Older homes charm you at the showing and bill you afterward. The costs that age hides, what inspections miss, and how to budget the first two years well.
By Holm Team
- July 4, 2026
AC repair or replace: the 5,000 rule explained
The 5,000 rule multiplies your AC's age by the repair quote to guide the repair or replace call. How it works, where it breaks, and how to decide calmly.
By Holm Team
- July 2, 2026
How to check a contractor's insurance (and why it protects you)
Ask for a certificate of insurance sent straight from the contractor's agent, then check the dates, the limits, and the workers comp line before work starts.
By Holm Team
- June 30, 2026
Helping aging parents manage their home from far away
You can help aging parents keep their house running from another city: one shared record, trusted access, and contractors you can coordinate remotely.
By Holm Team
- June 29, 2026
Home improvement receipts can lower your taxes when you sell. Keep them.
Capital improvements can raise your home's cost basis and shrink the taxable gain when you sell, but only if the receipts still exist. What to keep and how.
By Holm Team
- June 27, 2026
Water heater maintenance: the twenty minute annual flush
An annual flush drains out the sediment that shortens a water heater's life. The steps, the safety checks, and the cases where you should call a plumber.
By Holm Team
- June 26, 2026
How big should your home repair emergency fund be?
There is no single right number for a home repair fund. Size it by the age of your systems, layer sinking funds on top, and build it in a calm sequence.
By Holm Team
- June 23, 2026
How to make sure a contractor quote is comparing apples to apples
Three quotes for the same job can describe three different jobs. Here is how to normalize scope, allowances, and exclusions so the numbers truly compare.
By Holm Team
- June 22, 2026
Your water heater is the most predictable emergency in the house
Tank water heaters typically last 8 to 12 years, and yours has a known age. How to find it, budget the replacement, and skip the cold shower emergency.
By Holm Team
- June 20, 2026
How often to change your HVAC filter, really
Most homes should change the HVAC filter every one to three months. What moves your timing, what a clogged filter really does, and how to never forget.
By Holm Team
- June 18, 2026
Home warranty vs home insurance: what each actually covers
Home insurance covers sudden disasters, a home warranty covers breakdowns, and neither covers neglect. What each pays for and how records protect both.
By Holm Team
- June 17, 2026
How much does home maintenance actually cost per year?
Surveyed homeowners average $9,924 a year on maintenance and repairs. What drives the range, how to estimate your own number, and how to budget for it.
By Holm Team
- June 15, 2026
Angi chose the contractor. The homeowner is still waiting.
Angi's latest shareholder letter reorients the company around contractors. What the pivot means for homeowners, and who is left owning your side of it.
By Holm Team
- June 13, 2026
Owning a home feels harder than it used to. It's not you.
Costs are up, owners stay longer, and help is harder to find. Why owning a home genuinely got harder, what the numbers show, and what actually lightens it.
By Holm Team
- June 12, 2026
You did the maintenance. Can you prove it?
Insurers are closing more claims without paying, and home condition is often the reason. Why proof of maintenance matters and exactly what to document.
By Holm Team
- June 10, 2026
What AI can actually do for your house (and what it can't)
A grounded look at AI and home maintenance: what it genuinely helps with, what it cannot do, and how to tell useful tools from hype when running a house.
By Holm Team
- June 9, 2026
Why your home's memory dies every time someone moves
Every home sale wipes the house's history clean. What gets lost in the handoff, what it costs the next owner, and how records can finally stay with the home.
By Holm Team
- June 6, 2026
Do maintenance records raise what your house sells for?
An honest look at whether maintenance records raise your sale price: how a documented house reduces buyer risk, defends your ask, and speeds up the deal.
By Holm Team
- June 5, 2026
How to keep track of home maintenance without becoming an accountant
Most maintenance tracking fails because it asks too much of you. The minimum viable record, the right tool for your temperament, and a system that survives.
By Holm Team
- June 3, 2026
What it costs to keep a home in 2026, and what's driving it up
Keeping a home in 2026 runs well past twenty thousand dollars a year beyond the mortgage. Where the money goes, what is rising, and which costs you control.
By Holm Team
- June 1, 2026
Reactive or proactive: the two kinds of homeowners
Two owners, one aging water heater, two very different mornings. What reactive homeownership really costs, and how to switch modes in a single weekend.
By Holm Team
- May 31, 2026
Home maintenance for people with no time
The minimum effective dose of home maintenance: automate what repeats, batch the rest into two weekends, delegate with a record. For owners with no time.
By Holm Team
- May 29, 2026
Never lose a good contractor's number again
Most homeowners lose track of good contractors within a few years. How to keep who did what attached to your house so the right number is always there.
By Holm Team
- May 27, 2026
Buying a house with no paper trail: what you're really inheriting
A house with no maintenance history hides more than an inspection can find. What the missing paper trail costs, what to ask sellers, and how to start over.
By Holm Team
- May 26, 2026
Your first month in the house: do these things
Your first month in a new house sets the tone for years. Find the shutoffs, change the locks and filter, photograph everything, and start the home record.
By Holm Team
- May 24, 2026
Skipping maintenance is a loan with terrible interest
Deferred home maintenance behaves like a loan that compounds against you. Where small skips become large damage, and how to pay the balance down calmly.
By Holm Team
- May 23, 2026
Inheriting a house: the paperwork nobody warns you about
Inheriting a house means inheriting its paperwork. The deed, insurance, utilities, taxes, and the missing history, organized into a calm and workable order.
By Holm Team
- May 21, 2026
McKinsey just sized the future of property management. The home version doesn't exist yet.
McKinsey's new piece on agentic AI in real estate describes a $430 to $550 billion opportunity for property managers and REITs. The same shift is coming to the consumer side. The homeowner just doesn't have the operating system yet.
By Holm Team
- May 20, 2026
What actually drives the cost of a roof replacement
Roof replacement cost comes down to size, pitch, material, tear-off, access, and region. How to read quotes clearly and why a documented roof pays you back.
By Holm Team
- May 20, 2026
How to vet a contractor for a $5K+ home project
Nine questions to ask before you hand over a deposit. Most homeowners ask one or two. The other seven are where the horror stories live.
By Holm Team
- May 19, 2026
How to check a contractor's license before hiring
How to check a contractor license before hiring: find your state board, verify status and classification, confirm insurance, and spot the common red flags.
By Holm Team
- May 18, 2026
What to photograph the day you move in
Twenty minutes of photos on move-in day will save you a small fortune and a lot of frustration over the next decade. Here's the shot list.
By Holm Team
- May 17, 2026
Americans aren't moving. Here's what that does to your house.
Americans now stay in their homes about 12 years, nearly double 2005. What longer tenure means for your systems, your budget, and the records you keep.
By Holm Team
- May 15, 2026
Furnace repair or replace: how to do the math
A calm framework for the furnace repair or replace decision: weigh age against repair cost, question efficiency claims, and know when to seek a second opinion.
By Holm Team
- May 15, 2026
The first-year homeowner maintenance calendar
A month by month list of the small things to do in your first year of owning a home. The kind of stuff nobody handed you at closing.
By Holm Team
- May 14, 2026
Getting the keys was never the hard part
The American dream ends at the closing table in every story we tell. But the real work of owning a home is the thirty years after, and nobody prepares you.
By Holm Team
- May 12, 2026
The questions that separate good contractors from expensive ones
Ten questions to ask a contractor before hiring, with what a good answer actually sounds like for each, so you can hear the difference before you commit.
By Holm Team
- May 10, 2026
How to make a home inventory for insurance, room by room
A home inventory is the document your future self needs on the worst day. Here is the room by room method, what to photograph, and where to store it all.
By Holm Team
- May 9, 2026
Managing more than one property without losing the thread
Two properties are more than twice the work of one. Here is why the complexity multiplies, and the per-property system that keeps every house knowable.
By Holm Team
- May 7, 2026
How often should gutters be cleaned?
The standard guidance is to clean gutters twice a year, more often under trees. Here is why the humble gutter protects your foundation, roof, and walls.
By Holm Team
- May 6, 2026
The 1 percent rule for home maintenance: does it hold up?
The 1 percent rule says to save one percent of your home value yearly for upkeep. Here is where the old rule holds up, where it fails, and what to do instead.
By Holm Team
- May 3, 2026
Home maintenance fails because it lives in your head
Your house runs on one person's memory. Here is why that always breaks down, what it quietly costs you, and what changes when the list leaves your head.
By Holm Team
- May 2, 2026
A home maintenance budget you'll actually stick to
A three-part home maintenance budget you can keep: a monthly baseline reserve, a plan for seasonal spikes, and an adjustment for the age of your systems.
By Holm Team
- April 30, 2026
How long does a water heater last? Warning signs it is on the way out
Tank water heaters typically last 8 to 12 years. Here are the five warning signs one is failing, what shortens its life, and how to check the age of yours.
By Holm Team
- April 28, 2026
The home maintenance log, and how to keep one properly
What a proper home maintenance log contains, which format actually survives real life, and why the record quietly grows more valuable every year you keep it.
By Holm Team
- April 27, 2026
What your insurer wishes you kept track of
Insurers pay for sudden damage, not slow neglect. Here is how maintenance and records shape your coverage, and the paper trail worth keeping all year.
By Holm Team
- April 25, 2026
How long does a roof last? By material, honestly
Asphalt shingle roofs typically last roughly 15 to 30 years. What moves yours within that range, how other materials compare, and the honest warning signs.
By Holm Team
- April 23, 2026
How often should you service your HVAC?
Once a year per system: cooling in spring, heating in fall. What a real tune-up includes, what skipping it quietly costs, and how to make it automatic.
By Holm Team
- April 22, 2026
How to organize home documents so you can actually find them
A calm, practical system for home documents: what to digitize, a folder structure that holds up, file names you can search, and the yearly five-year test.
By Holm Team
- April 20, 2026
Buying the house was the easy part
Owning a home costs over twenty thousand dollars a year beyond the mortgage. Why the price of keeping a house surprises almost everyone, and what helps.
By Holm Team
- April 19, 2026
Every house needs a system of record. Yours included.
Your money has a bank. Your health has a chart. Your house has a junk drawer. What a home system of record is, what belongs in it, and why it matters.
By Holm Team
- April 16, 2026
Home maintenance records: what to keep and for how long
Which receipts, invoices, photos, and manuals to keep for your home, exactly how long each record earns its place, and where the effort pays you back.
By Holm Team
- April 15, 2026
How long everything in your house lasts
Typical lifespans for the roof, furnace, water heater, and major appliances, what shortens them, what extends them, and how to know where yours stand.
By Holm Team
- April 13, 2026
Your car has a history report. Why doesn't your house?
A used car comes with a history report. A house worth twenty times more comes with almost nothing. What a Carfax for your home would hold, and why it matters.
By Holm Team
- April 11, 2026
The only home maintenance schedule you need, month by month
A month by month home maintenance schedule condensed to what actually matters, so every task lands in the right season and nothing ever piles up on you.
By Holm Team
- April 10, 2026
Spring home maintenance checklist: twelve tasks that prevent summer repairs
Twelve spring maintenance tasks that protect your house all the way through summer, with the reason behind each one. Gutters, AC, drainage, deck, and more.
By Holm Team
- April 8, 2026
Preventative home maintenance, explained simply
Preventative home maintenance means small, scheduled care that stops big repairs before they start. What it is, why it works, and where to begin today.
By Holm Team
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