You closed. The keys are yours. Now the relief turns into a quiet question: what am I supposed to actually do now?

Here is the year-one checklist nobody hands you. It is organized by when each item matters, so you can work through it in order rather than panicking at month 11.

This is general guidance, not legal, tax, or financial advice. For anything material, talk to a CPA, attorney, or financial advisor in your state.

Week 1: lock down the basics

Walk every shutoff in the house with a flashlight. Main water shutoff. Gas shutoff. Electrical panel. Each toilet supply valve. Every sink shutoff under the cabinet. Take photos and label them in your phone. The day a pipe bursts at 2am is not the day to learn where the main is.

Photograph the panel and the meter. Take a clean photo of the breaker panel with all labels visible, the water heater data plate, the HVAC unit data plate (model + serial), and your water + electric meter readings. These come up constantly later, when you are calling for service, comparing utility bills against the prior owner, or filing an insurance claim.

Change the locks. A locksmith is $100 to $250 for the whole house, or you can buy and install replacement deadbolts yourself for less. Either way, you do not know who has copies of the old keys. Realtors, contractors, the prior owner's family, and at least one dog walker have probably had access at some point.

Set up utilities in your name. Electric, water, gas, internet, trash. Some need to be moved on closing day; others have a grace window. Confirm each one is in your name within 7 days, otherwise the prior owner gets billed (or worse, service gets shut off).

Forward your mail. USPS change of address takes 5 minutes online and costs $1.10 for identity verification. Update your driver's license, voter registration, employer, banks, credit cards, and any subscriptions. Keep a list as you find each one over the first month, you will not remember them all upfront.

Month 1: file what cannot wait

File your homestead exemption. This is the single highest-value paperwork move of the year and most people miss it. The homestead exemption reduces the assessed value of your primary residence for property tax purposes, often saving hundreds to thousands of dollars per year. Each state has its own rules: some require filing within 30 to 60 days of moving in, some let you file anytime before a March or April deadline, and some apply automatically. Search "[your state] homestead exemption" or call your county assessor's office to confirm your deadline.

Save your closing package. The stack of paper you signed at closing, deed, closing disclosure, title insurance policy, mortgage note, all of it, is part of your permanent records. Scan everything to PDF and store it in two places (cloud + external drive). The originals: a fireproof safe or safe deposit box. You will need these for tax filing, future refinances, and eventually selling.

Audit your escrow account. Your monthly mortgage payment usually includes a chunk for property tax + homeowner's insurance, paid into an escrow account. The lender estimates these for the first year. If their estimate is low, you will get hit with an "escrow shortage" in year 2 (extra few hundred dollars per month for 12 months to catch up). Watch out for this. The escrow shock calculator walks through what to expect.

Update your insurance. You bought a homeowner's policy at closing. Within the first month, do two things: (1) confirm the dwelling coverage matches what it would actually cost to rebuild your house (not the purchase price, the rebuild cost, which is often different), and (2) get quotes from 2-3 other carriers for comparison. Insurance prices vary wildly between companies for the same coverage.

Months 2-3: build the maintenance baseline

Schedule HVAC service. A pro tune-up is $100-$200 per system and adds years of life to the equipment. They will also tell you the realistic remaining life of the system, critical info for budgeting. Do this even if it ran fine for the inspection.

Find a plumber, an electrician, and a handyman before you need them. Ask neighbors. Ask the inspector you used. Ask the local Facebook group. The day a toilet floods, you do not want to be Googling reviews. Save 2-3 contacts in your phone for each trade now.

Test smoke + CO detectors. Press the test button on every detector. Replace batteries in any that beep. Note the manufacturing date on each unit, smoke detectors have a 10-year lifespan even with fresh batteries.

Walk the perimeter. Look at the foundation, gutters, roof edges, exterior caulk, weatherstripping. Note anything that looks off. This baseline lets you spot changes over the year that signal real problems (foundation crack widening, gutter pulling away, etc.).

Set up a maintenance reminder system. Whatever you use (Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Notion, paper notebook), set recurring reminders for: HVAC filter (every 1-3 months), gutter cleaning (twice a year, spring + fall), HVAC tune-up (annually), water heater flush (annually), termite inspection (annually in southern states), and roof inspection (every 2-3 years). The reminders matter more than the system, you will forget without them.

Months 3-6: review and optimize

Read your first full year of mortgage statements. Around month 3, you should have 2-3 statements. Confirm: principal balance is decreasing, interest portion is correct, escrow is funding, and PMI (if applicable) is being collected at the rate you expected. Lenders make mistakes more often than you would think, and statement errors compound silently.

Review your auto + home + umbrella insurance bundle. Once you own a home, an umbrella liability policy ($1M+ coverage) costs $200-$400 per year and protects everything you have built (home equity included) from a lawsuit. Most homeowners do not have one and should. Get a quote from your home insurer; bundling sometimes drops your auto rate too.

Plan for the property tax bill. If you escrow, your lender pays it. If you do not, the bill will land in your mailbox sometime in the next 6 months. Either way, know when it hits and how much. If you are not escrowed, you should be saving 1/12 of the annual amount monthly so the bill does not surprise you.

Check whether you can drop PMI. If you put down less than 20%, you are paying PMI (private mortgage insurance) of roughly 0.3-1.5% of the loan amount per year. You can request PMI removal once your loan-to-value ratio hits 80%, and it is automatically removed at 78%. Home appreciation counts. If your area has appreciated significantly, you may already be there. The PMI calculator can help you check.

Months 6-12: prepare for year 2

Start a "house file." Physical or digital, one place where everything home-related goes: warranty paperwork from appliances, receipts from improvements, paint colors used in each room, contractor contact info, inspection reports. This becomes invaluable when you sell or want to remodel.

Track home improvements for tax basis. Improvements (kitchen remodel, new roof, addition) increase your "cost basis" for capital gains purposes when you eventually sell. Repairs (fixing a leak, replacing a broken window) do not. Keep receipts and a running log. The capital gains calculator explains how this matters at sale time.

Prepare for tax season. Your first homeowner tax return looks different. Three things to gather:

Form 1098 from your lender (mortgage interest paid + points paid at closing)
Property tax paid (from your closing disclosure if you closed late in the year, plus any direct payments after)
Closing disclosure (some closing costs are deductible)

You may or may not benefit from itemizing vs. taking the standard deduction. A CPA or tax software will run both scenarios. The mortgage interest deduction is worth less than people think under current rules: only the portion above the standard deduction actually reduces your taxes, and many homeowners no longer itemize.

Watch for the refinance window. If mortgage rates drop more than ~0.75% below your current rate, look at refinancing. The break-even on a refi (the months until savings exceed costs) typically lands at 24-36 months. If you plan to stay longer than break-even, refi probably wins. If you plan to move, wait. The recast vs refi calculator walks through the math.

Anniversary review. At month 12, sit down with your partner (or yourself) and review: did you spend roughly what you expected on maintenance? Did anything surprise you? What does the next 12 months look like? This is the moment to budget realistically rather than from purchase-day optimism.

What to ignore

A few things first-year homeowners get pitched aggressively that you can safely decline:

Mortgage protection insurance. This pays off your mortgage if you die. Sounds reasonable. Almost always cheaper to buy term life insurance for the same coverage amount, which also pays out if you have other debts or need to support a family. If you do not have term life, buy that instead.

Home warranty companies. Annual fees ($400-$800) plus per-service fees ($75-$125) often exceed what a few minor repairs would cost out of pocket. Coverage is full of exclusions. Better strategy: build an actual home maintenance fund (1% of home value per year) and call your own contractors.

Random refinance pitches in the mail. Once you close, your name + loan info hits public records and you will get bombarded with refinance offers. Most are not actually competitive. Only refinance through a lender you have shopped on your own terms.

Anyone offering to "help you remove PMI" for a fee. You can request PMI removal yourself by writing a one-page letter to your servicer. It is free.

The big picture

Owning a home is mostly small consistent decisions, not the big dramatic ones. The first year sets the rhythm: file the exemptions, schedule the maintenance, learn the systems, build the contractor list, watch the numbers monthly. Do that and year 2 is much quieter.

If something on this list feels confusing or expensive, that is a normal feeling, not a sign you bought the wrong house.

HomeBuyer Copilot is a free tool built by Redfish AI LLC in Charleston, SC. Informational, not legal, tax, or financial advice. For decisions specific to your situation, talk to a licensed professional in your state.