Everybody tells you what to do before buying a house.

Get pre-approved.

Find the house.

Make an offer.

Get an inspection.

Review the appraisal.

Buy homeowners insurance.

Sign approximately 47,000 pieces of paper.

Get the keys. 🔑

And then…

Everybody leaves.

You’re standing in your new home surrounded by boxes, trying to figure out where the couch goes, whether the internet works, and…perhaps most importantly…where somebody packed the coffee maker.

But there’s another walkthrough you should probably do before you finish unpacking.

I call it the:

“How does this house actually work?” tour.

It’s not nearly as exciting as walking through your new kitchen for the first time.

But it might be considerably more useful.

Because the worst time to learn where your main water shutoff is…

is when water is already running across the floor.

So before you get completely settled, grab your phone and spend a little time getting acquainted with your new house.

This new homeowner checklist will give you seven good places to start.

1. Find Your Main Water Shutoff

This would be near the top of my list for any new homeowner.

You need to know how to shut off the water supply to your house quickly.

The location can vary depending on the house, so if you’re unsure which valve controls the main supply, don’t start randomly turning things and hoping for the best.

Find it.

Identify it.

Make sure the other adults in your household know where it is.

And then:

Take a picture of it.

Imagine waking up one morning and discovering water pouring from somewhere it absolutely should not be pouring from.

That’s not when you want to begin searching Google while yelling:

“Honey! Do you remember that thing the inspector said about some valve?”

Know before you need to know.

That’s going to become a recurring theme throughout this new homeowner checklist.

2. Find Your Electrical Panel

Next stop on the tour: your breaker panel.

Find it and open it up.

Are the breakers clearly labeled?

You might see:

Kitchen.

Bedrooms.

Garage.

Water heater.

HVAC.

Hopefully, a previous homeowner or electrician has done a beautiful job labeling everything.

Or perhaps you’ll discover the ancient homeowner electrical labeling system:

“LIGHTS.”

Excellent.

Which lights?

All the lights?

The neighbor’s lights?

Nobody knows. 😂

If your electrical panel isn’t clearly labeled, identifying the circuits can become a homeowner project for another day.

For now, the important thing is knowing where the panel is and how to access it.

Which means there’s one more important rule:

Don’t move into your new house and immediately bury the electrical panel behind 37 boxes.

3. Find Your HVAC System

If you’re buying a home in Tampa Bay…or pretty much anywhere in Florida…your air conditioning system deserves an introduction.

Find the indoor portion of your HVAC system.

Depending on the property, it may be located in a garage, closet, attic or another utility area.

You don’t need to become an HVAC technician.

You simply need to begin understanding the equipment responsible for keeping your Florida house from becoming a walk-in sauna in August.

Take a look around the system.

Where is the filter?

Where is the condensate drain?

Is there anything stored around the equipment that shouldn’t be there?

Does anything look obviously unusual?

Take a picture of the unit and its identifying information if accessible.

You may not need any of that information today.

That’s the point.

You’re collecting it before you need it.

4. Find Your AC Filter and Write Down the Size

This may be the easiest item on the entire new homeowner checklist, and one of the easiest to forget.

Find your air filter.

Then look for the dimensions printed on it.

Take a picture.

Better yet, create a note on your phone and save the filter size there.

Congratulations.

You’ve just prevented Future You from standing in the air-filter aisle at the hardware store staring at approximately 900 nearly identical rectangles thinking:

“Was it 16x20x1…or 20x20x1?”

How often a filter needs to be changed depends on the filter, HVAC system, household conditions and manufacturer recommendations.

But you don’t need to figure everything out today.

For your first week as a homeowner, start with two things:

Know where the filter is.

Know which filter you need.

5. Find Your Water Heater

Next, find your water heater.

We’re not taking anything apart.

Actually…

Please don’t take anything apart. 😂

We’re learning the house.

Find the water heater and, if safely accessible, take a picture of the manufacturer and model information.

I’d actually expand this habit beyond the water heater.

Start documenting the major equipment and appliances that came with your house.

HVAC equipment.

Water heater.

Refrigerator.

Dishwasher.

Range.

Garage door opener.

Pool equipment, if applicable.

You don’t have to create a giant homeowner database on your first afternoon.

But taking a few photographs now can make finding manuals, replacement parts or service information considerably easier later.

6. Find the Smaller Shutoffs and Controls Around Your House

Knowing where your main water shutoff is can be incredibly useful.

But it’s not the only control worth finding.

As you walk around the house, start learning where the smaller shutoffs are.

Look beneath sinks.

Look behind toilets.

Look outside.

Where are your hose connections?

Do you have an irrigation system?

Where are its controls?

If you have a pool, where is the equipment?

Are there switches, valves or controls you don’t understand yet?

Don’t start experimenting with mysterious equipment.

Just notice it.

Every house has its own little ecosystem.

And that’s one of the most important ideas behind this entire new homeowner checklist:

You’re not just learning how houses work.

You’re learning how YOUR house works.

7. Find and Check Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms

Now let’s walk through the house and locate its safety equipment.

Find your smoke alarms and any carbon monoxide alarms installed in the home.

Review the manufacturer’s instructions for testing, maintenance and replacement.

And while you’re doing that, ask a slightly bigger question:

If something happened in this house tonight, would everybody know what to do?

Where would you exit?

Where would everyone meet outside?

Where are your fire extinguishers?

Are there bedroom windows or doors everyone should know how to operate?

You don’t need to transform your new house into an emergency command center.

You simply want to think through these questions before there’s an emergency.

The 5-Minute New Homeowner Phone Trick

Here’s the part of this new homeowner checklist that I think could save you the most aggravation over the next several years.

Create a photo album on your phone called:

MY HOUSE

Then photograph the important parts of your home as you discover them:

• Main water shutoff
• Electrical panel and breaker labels
• HVAC equipment and model information
• AC filter and filter size
• Water heater information
• Appliance model and serial numbers
• Irrigation controls
• Pool equipment
• Garage door equipment
• Hurricane shutters and hardware
• Paint labels and colors
• Warranty information
• Anything else Future You may eventually need to identify

You can also photograph receipts, labels and other information you don’t want to hunt for later.

It doesn’t need to be sophisticated.

You’re basically creating a tiny owner’s manual for your particular house.

Florida Homeowners: Add Hurricane Equipment to Your Checklist

If you’ve just purchased a home in Tampa Bay, there’s another category worth understanding early:

storm preparation.

Don’t wait until a hurricane is approaching and half the neighborhood is standing in line for plywood to investigate what came with your house.

If the property has hurricane shutters, panels or other protective equipment, figure out what you have.

Where is it stored?

Is there hardware that goes with it?

Which pieces correspond to which openings?

Do you understand how the system is intended to be installed?

You don’t necessarily need to install everything today.

You want to know what you’re working with.

The same principle applies to your property’s flood and evacuation information.

And here’s an important distinction for Florida homeowners:

A flood zone and an evacuation zone are not the same thing.

Not sure what yours are? Use the Tampa Signal Flood & Evacuation Zone Lookup to find the official resources for your county.

They’re used for different purposes.

That’s something worth understanding long before a storm is headed toward Tampa Bay.

Your Home Inspection Can Become Your First Owner’s Manual

There’s another document I’d pull back out after closing:

your home inspection report.

Most buyers understandably read their inspection report differently before purchasing.

You’re looking for problems.

What’s broken?

What needs repair?

Is there anything serious enough to reconsider the purchase?

After you own the house, read it again from a different perspective.

Now you’re looking for:

What should I learn about this house?

Your inspector may have photographed or documented components that you haven’t thought about since the inspection.

The report can become the beginning of your home’s maintenance roadmap.

Instead of treating the inspection as a document whose usefulness ended at closing, keep it accessible.

It may be one of the better reference manuals you have for the property.

Your First Week Isn’t About Fixing Everything

This is where I think new homeowners sometimes put unnecessary pressure on themselves.

You get the keys and suddenly notice…

That wall could use paint.

Those cabinet handles should probably be replaced.

The landscaping needs work.

You’d like different light fixtures.

Maybe the guest bathroom needs updating.

And three hours into homeownership you’ve mentally committed yourself to $37,000 worth of projects. 😂

You don’t have to fix everything immediately.

Spend some time living in the house first.

Learn which improvements actually matter to you.

Learn how you use the space.

Learn where the sun hits in the afternoon.

Learn which room you’re actually going to spend time in.

Learn which little annoyance disappears after two weeks…and which one drives you completely insane every single day.

There’s a difference between something that needs immediate attention and something you simply want to change.

Your first week can be about understanding the house rather than reinventing it.

The Bigger Lesson: Learn Your House Before Something Breaks

Buying a home and understanding your home are two different things.

Your inspection can teach you a tremendous amount about a property’s condition before you buy it.

Your Realtor, inspector, insurance agent, lender and other professionals can help you navigate the transaction.

But eventually closing day comes.

You get the keys.

And something changes.

It’s yours now.

One of the best things you can do during those first few weeks is simply become curious.

Where does the water come in?

Where does the electricity go?

How does the AC drain?

What’s that switch nobody seems to know anything about?

Why is there a random valve behind that bush?

What does that unlabeled breaker control?

Some answers will be important.

Some will be completely mundane.

And eventually you’ll discover at least one thing that makes you stare silently for several seconds and say:

“What in the world did the previous owner do here?”

Congratulations.

You’re officially a homeowner. 😂

Useful Resources For New Florida Homeowners

Help Us Build the Tampa Bay New Homeowner Checklist

I don’t want this to become another generic homeowner checklist written once and forgotten.

I’d rather build it from the experiences of people who actually own homes around Tampa Bay.

So if you’ve been a homeowner for a while:

What’s something you wish somebody had shown you during your first week?

Maybe it’s something simple.

Maybe it’s uniquely Florida.

Maybe it’s something you didn’t discover until it broke.

Maybe it’s something you learned the expensive way.

Tell me.

I’ll use the best suggestions to continue building the Tampa Signal Homeowner Guide so the next person gets to learn it the easy way.

What should be #8?