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So, What Is Home Management?
Posted under Essential Products, Home Management, Improving Your Home, Protecting Your Home
Several years ago, The Proper Home undertook a significant research project to take a closer look at what it requires to maintain an average home well. What we discovered was that over 99% of all homes in America were not maintained well because homeowners simply did not understand what to do, when to do it or how to do it.
The results of inadequate maintenance in addition to a host of other issues revealed inefficiencies both financially and in terms of safety responsible for many thousands of dollars in costs every year to homeowners and tens of thousands of lives lost or forever changed needlessly every year.
We set out so find existing technology that was capable of meeting these needs. Surprisingly, none existed. We began the development of a system that could meet these needs for homeowners in a way that was practical, affordable and comprehensive. Most importantly, the solution had to be simple to use and provide a great deal of intelligence behind the scenes to be practical for every homeowner. the Stonebridge Home Assistant™ was a result of our program.
Understanding Home Management
In its simplest form, home management is a process of reducing or eliminating risks to your home. The risks include financial cost, safety and property protection.
Home management as defined by The Proper Home is a combination of the following activities:
1.) Preserving and increasing the performance of your home
2.) Keeping your home safe
3.) Protecting the property inside of your home , and
4.) Increasing the value and appeal of your home.
Let’s explore these areas briefly.
Preserving and Increasing the Performance of Your Home
Your home is one of the most complex collections of systems that you will encounter or probably own. Your home is also one of your greatest financial expenditures. Like you car, when you fail to maintain your home properly, it becomes inefficient, can break and can even harm occupants. An inefficient home is far more expensive and risky to own, operate and maintain.
Our research indicates that an average 2400 square foot home that is improperly maintained costs its owner more than $6,000 or more to operate each year than one that is well maintained. If your home is twice that size at 4800 square feet, the costs increase to over $18,000!
In short, a properly maintained home is safer, costs less and is far less prone to failure than one that is managed well. The problem is that maintaining a home well requires organization, documentation and time! The good news is that, when done properly, maintaining the average home requires typically less than 4 days a year!
This aspect of home management is one of the most difficult for homeowners to manage effectively. It can be such as hassle that many neglect it altogether – which is where the expense and trouble can really begin to add up!
Cost efficiency is another critical consideration. An average of 57% of the cost to operate your home is for heat and air conditioning. An improperly maintained system can cost you up to three times more to operate each month! In tough times or in good, you do not want your money going through your chimney!
Many other inefficiencies contribute quickly to the cost of owning your home. These are a few of the most obvious.
The Stonebridge Home Assistant makes this part of home management dramatically easier and faster by allowing homeowners to document their house in a very different, yet intuitive way. Once you add an item and provide some basic information, The Stonebridge Home Assistant takes over and reminds you of what and when a task needs to be performed via email alert. With advanced scheduling, you can even see what needs to be done next month, what you forgot last month and much more.
Keeping Your Home Safe
What are the chances of you or someone else begin harmed in your house by crime, fire, flood, fire, natural disaster or other home-related event? About 1 in 4.
An improperly maintained home needlessly costs thousands of American lives every year. Something as simple as a five dollar toilet wax seal can turn a bathroom into a methane explosion. A poorly maintained furnace or water heater can introduce the silent killer of carbon monoxide to your home without warning until it’s too late.
All too often lives are ended unnecessarily because of simple maintenance failure. These are obvious examples. Decaying structural components present even more dangers to life and security.
The great news is that with simple maintenance alone, many of these threats can be mitigated or eliminated entirely. The Stonebridge Home Assistant helps you to keep your home safer and more secure.
Protecting Your Possessions
Do you know your likelihood of a catastrophic loss of property in the United States? About 1 in 2, or 50%!
We work very hard for our possessions. When disaster strikes it is essential to have adequate records to replace as many as possible. Unfortunately, many homeowners do not record critical information about their possessions, or worse yet, keep that information within their home. The result is that an estimated 30% of all insurance property item claims are never paid when disaster strikes.
From crime to floods, having appropriate information readily available saves time, confusion and goes a long way to recovering your property, prosecutions and recouping your losses when possible.
The Stonebridge Home Assistant provides an extensive and secure capability for you to catalogues your possessions privately, securely and safely. And when disaster strikes, you can access your information from anywhere in the world 24/7 365 days a year!
Increasing the Value and Appeal of Your Home
It is simple: a well-maintained home is worth more than one that is not well maintained. Records and organization are only a part of the equation. A complete home history that includes resources, improvements and more can significantly increase the appeal and confidence that buyers respect and trust.
The Stonebridge Home Assistant creates a dynamic home history automatically as you maintain and manage your home. More importantly, with a few clicks of your mouse, you can transfer your complete home history (with or without your personal property) to new homeowners. You can even transfer your personal property to your new home as easily!
The Stonebridge Home Assistant Makes Home Management Easier and Smarter
The Stonebridge Home Assistant was created for quality homeowners who understand the importance of managing and maintaining their homes well – and want a professional system that is easy to use without compromises.
Managing your home with the Stonebridge Home Assistant is easy, saves money, makes your home safer, protects your possessions and can increase the value of your home.
jimmy posted the following on January 23, 2010 at 4:33 am...Good stuff. Keep up the good work. A good read.
Frank Renea posted the following on January 22, 2010 at 9:02 pm...My family’s home burned to the ground in a fire in 2009. My wife had signed up for the Stonebridge Home Assistant five months earlier. It turned out to be a lifesaver. We visited our insurance agent and used his computer and download our information including pictures. In minutes we had what would have otherwise required weeks and months of work – and would not have been nearly as complete.
It also told me that I forgot to change the salt in my water softener that day!
This is an essential program for every homeowner. I highly recommend it.