Owning a house comes with more responsibility than paying rent. Homeowners need to be prepared to deal with anything that may happen to their property.

You don’t need to pick up DIY skills just because you have a mortgage. However, it’s a good idea to have a list of service providers you trust that you can contact if something goes wrong.

Keep reading to discover a list of providers that would be handy to have on this emergency list.

1. Fire and Water Restoration

While we hope that you will never experience a fire or flooding in your new home, if either does happen, you will want to be ready. According to the experts at IDC Fire and Water Restoration, you should act quickly to avoid as much permanent damage as possible. The longer you wait, the more likely your home will face irreversible damage.

Be sure to have an emergency fire and water restoration service on standby so that you can save as much of your property as you can. They will do a thorough assessment to see what can be salvaged and what will need to be tossed. If you do this yourself, you may miss something resulting in mold growing in areas that have not been properly cleared. This is when you will need to call in Mold Remediation services, for example, so that you can handle this issue as soon as possible.

2. Pest Control

Unfortunately, pests do not really wait for a convenient time to rear their ugly heads. You do not want to find yourself in a situation where you are going through the lengthy process of vetting different pest control services while you can hear a scratching sound in wall at night or termites are eating away at your home.

You want to be ready to call a professional at the first sign of a bug or pest problem. The sooner you can contact an exterminator with the necessary credentials, the sooner they will be able to visit your property and address the situation.

3. Electric

While homeowners can easily fix many things around the house, you should avoid fixing electric problems unless you have sufficient experience. Messing with electrical systems without proper training and expertise could start a fire.  It is always best to leave electrical issues to the professionals, which is why you should have a local electrician on call that you trust.

Otherwise, you risk ending up with a situation that is much worse than whatever you started with. It is worth the contractor’s fees to ensure that the job is done right the first time instead of trying to deal with it yourself.

4. Plumbing

Plumbing is another area of home maintenance that can be difficult for inexperienced homeowners to handle on their own. Additionally, some plumbing issues, such as severe leaks, need to be tended to exceptionally quickly.

Therefore, you need to have the number of a trusted company that has experience handling plumbing emergencies in an easy-to-access place, so that you can get the help you need before your house suffers extensive damage.

5. Security

Now that you have your own home, you may want to invest in a security system that will help to keep your family and your belongings safe. If you choose to do so, you should keep the security company number in an easily accessible place so that you can reach them at a moment’s notice if you ever need any assistance.

At the very least, you may want to consider door cameras. You can receive mobile updates whenever your camera detects movement on your property.

While owning a home is exciting, it also requires maintenance and protection. Suddenly, you are responsible for so many more things that you did not have to worry about as a renter.

However, if you plan and take some of the advice listed above, then you will be ready for whatever challenges may come your way. Just a little bit of planning can save you a whole lot of headaches down the road.